Les Fables d'Esope Phrygien: Traduction Nouuelle. Illustrée de Discours Moraux, Philosophiques & Politiques

Abstract

I already have a copy of a 1660 Baudoin. I mention there the Paris edition by du Bray in 1659. Bodemann writes at the end of the comment on that 1659 edition that other copies have three other publishers' names: Rocolet, Courbé, and Sommaville. This is one of the Rocolet copies. Bodemann calls the 1659 edition a slightly altered and reduced Nachdruck of the 1631 original published by Courbé and Sommaville. This copy is not identical in pagination with that 1660 copy that we have. This copy has flaws. 15-16 and 102-9 are missing in this copy, and there are two sets of pages 581-90, though both sets of pages are where they should be. The printer simply forgot to change his second digit. The illustration for The Sick Ass and the Wolf on 328 has been colored green. The illustration for The Tortoise and the Eagle (504) has a hole. The illustration for The Lion and the Goat (608) is damaged. Canicio counts 120 illustrations. Baudoin's first edition in 1631 in Paris contained only 117 Aesopic fables, reportedly translated by Pierre Boissat. Roman page numbers run through the life and T of C, and start anew at Roman 1 for the fables. Philelphus has his own newly paginated section of 110 pages right after 712. However it happened, this edition has 118 fables. Generally, a fable in large print about a page long is followed by a discourse in small print about two pages long. Some of the discourses reach considerable length; The Greedy and the Envious (582) and CP (612) seem to get the record with about seventeen pages of discourse each! Several fables have not a discours but only a remarque. Every fable has an impressive numbered full-page copper-plate, like those in the 1631 edition always on the left side facing the beginning of the fable. Sometimes, as on 61, that process means leaving a whole right page blank. The source for the visual motifs is Gheeraerts, as can be seen in The Satyr and the Traveller (638). Two of my favorites among the magnificent illustrations are DS (20) and The Laborer and the Serpent (34). The Dog and the Ass (84) is also strong. In FK (108), Jupiter in the heavens already has the log in his hand. The Thief and the Dog (120) represents more good work. The clear vase in FS (164) allows the fox to see what he is missing inside it. The Man and the Lion (338) reverses the monument-relief's lie right before our eyes. The cut-away of the well is curious in The Fox and the Wolf (386). 2W (478) shows a man with a curious facial expression as both women work diligently on him. The excellent picture of Aesop facing his life (1) is the only one I notice here to have Briot sc inscribed. Du Laboureur et du Serpent (34) does not have Briot's name, as it seems to have in the 1660 copy. One hinge of the spine-cover is detached. A great find on a day in Heidelberg!