Die Fabeln des Äsopus/Fables d'Esope/Favole di Esopo/Fabulae Aesopi II

Abstract

"Here is a real prize! Two volumes each contain 45 Aesopic fables presented in the same format: a full-page (about 5" x 7½") illustration on more substantive paper and then a page each for German, French, Italian, and Latin. The publisher is not acknowledged, but "Vienna" and "1807" are. Bodemann #233.1 places apparently this same book at Joseph Frister as publisher in Vienna in 1818. No artist is acknowledged in this book. Bodemann lists von Perger as the artist for the 1818 edition. The plates are signed by the engravers, among them Pöltzel, Gerstner, Blaschke, Benedicti, and Belling. Metzner describes the engravings of the 1818 version this way: "naiv gezeichnete Fabelfiguren (Menschen und Tiere), volkstümliche Trachten und Requisiten sowie alpine Landschaftskulissen passen die Fabelszenen alpenländischer Kultur an." I find them strong, particularly these: "Sick Ass and Wolves" (9); OR (29); "Eagle and Crow" (53); "Farmer and Stork" (69); "Eagle and Tortoise" (97); "Angler and Little Fish" (125); "The Child and the Thief" (129); "The Satyr and the Farmer" (145); and GGE (153). That first fable mentioned, "Sick Ass and Wolves," is clever. Wolves show up to ask young wolf how his sick father is doing. His answer: "Much better than you wish." The frontispiece shows a bust of Aesop; below it are a bust of fabula and the mirror of truth with a serpent. See 1806 for the first volume."