Fables Causides De La Fontaine En Bers Gascouns (1776)

Abstract

This is a fascinating effort. I bought this print-on-demand copy because I found an 1891 edition with the same title and thought I might learn something before handling that fragile booklet. This is then a reprint of the 1776 original. It seems from that reprint that there is some controversy about the authorship of this book. In fact, this book is sparse. At its center are the first four books of La Fontaine's fables in Gascon French dialect. At the book's beginning one finds two elements: a pictorial title-page naming the publisher, Paul Fauvet Duhard in Bayonne, and a second illustration page showing La Fontaine, surrounded by Gloria, Fama, Veritas, and Prudentia. Bodemann #163, helpful in identifying these four figures, notes that the art was done by Jean Michel Moreau le jeune and engraved by Noel Le Mire. The four books are followed by a dictionary of Gascon French (263-84), which was not inclusive enough to help this reader make it through the first fable. I am suspicious because La Fontaine's 22 lines of verse in GA took 32 lines to translate here. There are some printer's designs after fables along the way.