Fables de La Fontaine, Tome I
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Authors
Édition, Nouvelle
Issue Date
1814
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Abstract
This pair of volumes is a great acquisition for the collection, but one that brings with it questions. The seller's description includes that the frontispiece portrait of La Fontaine was engraved by Ribault after Rigault. Leather binding. Gilt edges. There are six engravings by Moreau le Jeune in each volume. Those six engravings are the source of the questions. Bodemann #222.1 offers detailed comments on mostly different illustrations. A penciled note at the beginning of Volume I has "Suite des Gravures d'apres Moreau ÔÇô 1e Edition 1813." I cannot find anything about a first edition in 1813. And how are we to take "Nouvelle Edition" on the title page of this edition's Volume I? This edition squares with Bassy #29, which was not reviewed because unavailable. The illustrations here do square with Bassy #29b and with the 1826 edition of the same book by Nepveu and de Bure in our collection. For the record, those illustrations in Volume I are OR; "Lion and Mosquito"; BM; "The Miser Who Lost His Treasure"; "Luck and the Child"; and "Villager and Serpent." The illustrations are beautifully presented! I think Moreau le Jeune's OR is magnificent! As I wrote of the 1826 version, this OR illustration suggests two human attitudes, respectively, in its male and female figures enclosed in the angle created by the oak and the reeds. Another strong presentation is "Villager and Serpent."
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LeFèvre Libraire