Fables Choisis de Jean de La Fontaine
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Authors
Jean de La Fontaine
Issue Date
1965
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Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
Here is a curious find! It is not in Bodemann, and only 105 copies were printed. I searched for some cataloguing help and finally found one copy on WorldCat: at the New York Public Library. This lovely book's 33 pages contain one full-page etching for each fable. Each etching, about 3⅞" by 4¾" on its own page, is signed by its artist. Curiously these artists are listed only by family name on the title-page. The T of C near the end of the book (33) lists them with given names. The six fables and their artists are: "Death and the Wretched Man" (Alberto Ziveri); "A Will Explained by Aesop" (Arnoldo Ciarrocchi); "The Old Woman and the Two Servant Girls" (Alberto Manfredi); "The Old Man and the Ass" (Carlo Mattioli); "The Two Pigeons" (Mino Maccari); and TT (Duflio Rossoni). Ziveri's image has death as a skeleton reaching out for the not very happy man. Ciarrocchi's Aesop wears glasses and looks like Ben Franklin. Manfredi's two servant girls get my prize; the one looking up after being awakened is ready to kill something, someone, anyone! Mattioli's old man riding naked on the ass is another prize-winner. The ass looks back nonchalantly without moving. I find Maccari's image for "Two Pigeons" mostly confusing. A wigged and jacketed male figure -- La Fontaine, perhaps? -- holds a lighted candle and a heart as two pigeons encounter each other in the air. Rossoni's image for TT shows the turtle on its back, presumably on the ground and shattered. It is signed both in the etching and on the page. This rare book's OCLC number is 83821792. Not in Bodemann.
Description
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Publisher
Libreria Antiquaria Prandi
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DOI
Identifier
10603 (Access ID)