Labyrinte de Versailles: Der Irr-garte zu Versailles: Der Irrgarten von Versailles oder Führung durch Äsops Labyrinth der Psyche

Abstract

This is a curious little volume. I have long wanted to find a copy of one of several books that illustrate the fountains in the maze-garden at Versailles. Each of the fountains represented a fable. I have come close to finding such a volume. Here is a 1975 enhancement of an original from Augsburg around 1690. Johann Ulrich Krauss seems to have been the publisher then (Bodemann #79.2). Notice the German back then: Irr-Garte for what would now be called Irrgarten. A first frontispiece here pictures the modern publisher, Helmut Eisendle. The second frontispiece is the original map of the maze, complete with a route and the thirty-nine fountains numbered along the way. Apparently the original book was larger than this 4 x 6 edition. The fountains are listed in both French and German after several prefatory pages. The fables' presentation follows a pattern. On a left-hand page we find in French a short narrative of the fable and then a description of the fountain. Underneath the French is a quatrain, perhaps from Benserade? He created the quatrains found on the fountains themselves. The narrative and description are repeated below in German. On the facing right-hand page is the black-and-white illustration of the fountain. Underneath the illustration is a German quatrain. Between each fable's two pages is a printed slipsheet, apparently with Eisendle's contribution. This contribution explains the unusual subtitle: Führung durch Äsops Labyrinth der Psyche. These slipsheet-poems have as their characters the Super-ego, the Ego, and the Id. Fables #13 and #14 present the two phases of FS; these two fountains are very close to each other on the map. Fable #17 is new to me: a monkey responds to a parrot that he can imitate humans and tries to show it by putting on the clothes of a swimming boy. The monkey gets so tangled up in the clothes that the boy easily catches him. I am delighted to have found this book!