Manhattan Rare Book Company

“I also believe that the figures of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, as correctly drawn as they are, being the work of a painter who has spent his life excelling at drawing and painting [animals], will be a little treat for your youngest..." -Etienne Roger in the dedicatory essay, on Francis Barlow’s illustrations.

ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED EDITIONS OF AESOP’S FABLES, COMPLETE WITH OVER 100 SUPERB ENGRAVINGS BY RENOWNED ARTIST FRANCIS BARLOW. A MAGNIFICENT COPY IN UNRESTORED CONTEMPORARY BINDING.

“No artist has responded with more sensitivity and less sentimentality to the gentle grace of deer ... The least of creatures, the frog, the hare, the snake, and the swallow, and the least favoured of them, the ass, the boar and the wolf -- he draws them all with an intimacy, charm, and enviable integrity never surpassed” (Edward Hodnett, on Francis Barlow).

This production marks a compilation of Francis Barlow’s famous engravings; the publisher Etiènne Roger used almost all of the Barlow illustrations from both the 1666 and 1687 English editions of Aesop’s Fables.

Translated by the publisher Etiènne Roger into French from the famous and highly sophisticated English text by Roger L’Estrange.

Complete with a staggering 137 engraved plates: 29 full-page engravings illustrating the "Life of Aesop" (two of which are the repeated prefatory plate of Aesop surrounded by animals) and 109 plates illustrating the fables.

Provenance: From the collection of Dr. Charles Groffier, 19th century French scholar, with his small paper label on verso front free endpaper.

Full title: Les Fables d'Esope & de plusieurs autres excellens mythologistes, accompagnées du sens moral & des reflexions de monsieur le chevalier Lestrange. Traduites de l'Anglois. Avec les figures dessinées & gravées par F. Barlouw, d'une maniere savante & pittore.

Amsterdam: Etiènne Roger, 1714. Quarto (approx 26 x 20.5 cm), exquisite contemporary full calf, elaborate gilt pattern and original leather label on spine. Engravings by Francis Barlow; some in the Life of Aesop are by Thomas Dudley (as issued) after Barlow’s designs. Small wormhole (filled in) to top margin of early leaves, not affecting text or plates; a few other leaves with very small repaired tears in margins. Plate impressions very strong.

A superb copy, extremely rare in such a fine unrestored contemporary binding.

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