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17441163571744. FOSSATI Giorgio. Raccolta di Varie Favole delineate ed incise in Rame. Six volumes in two. 16 44; 16 48; 8 76; 8 59; 8 59; 8 36 pp. Title-pages in vol. I with engraved ornamental borders printed in red. Illustrated with 3 engraved headpieces and 216 engraved plates printed in red green blue brown and black. 4to. 295 x 205 mm bound in full Venetian contemporary vellum boards. Venice: Carlo Pecora 1744. First Edition of one of the most sought-after Venetian eighteenth-century colour-printed works. The two hundred plus engravings are printed in the following colour inks: blue olive green sepia madder rose chocolate brown yellow brown Payne's grey reddish brown cadmium orange black and blue-grey. This scarce Venetian edition of classical fables with coloured engravings was designed and executed by the architect Giorgio Fossati. Birds beasts plants and humans are placed in Venetian pastoral or architectural settings. The latter are especially noteworthy and reveal the practiced hand and eye of their author; in plate XXXIII "The Gentleman and the Ape" the grand illusionistic stage setting recalls the work of the Bibiena. The Swiss-born Giorgio Fossati 1705-1785 designer of the facade of the Scuola and church of San Rocco in Venice was an important promulgator of architectural history theory and practice through his many sumptuous publications including new editions of Vignola Palladio and Félibien. Fossati specialized in books with illustrations printed in colour. The colour-technique he employed involved no overprinting or mixing just pure colour printed on heavy white Italian paper giving his books an extravagant Venetian character. Copies of the Favole that were bound in six volumes sometimes manifest additional engraved title-pages preceding each volume of text; the present copy like that of the Spencer Collection NYPL has the two engraved title-pages preceding vol. I. In our copy the allegorical explications of the fables in the first two volumes 8 8 pp. are bound before their respective texts. Fine copies in contemporary Venetian bindings are very rare on the market. This is a fresh fine and attractive copy in its contemporary Venetian binding. PROVENANCE: With later bookplate bearing a crossed monogram "L.L." surrounded in each corner by the emblem of medicine a serpent entwining the staff of Asclepius. Cohen-Ricci 410. Lewine 192. Sander 727. Morazzoni 232. Lanckoronska 108. Rosenwald 1570. Pedrocco The Glory of Venice Art in the Eighteenth Century 1994 ch. VIII p. 290 & fig. 190. hardcover books
15011859Basel: Jacob Wolff of Pforzheim 1501. First edition thus. An early illustrated edition of Aesop's Fables augmented and edited by Sebastian Brant and the first edition to include his additional 140 sections. Two parts in one volume folio leaves measuring 297 x 208 mm. Collates complete retaining one of the two blank leaves M6 lacking. Collation identical to the Fairfax-Murray copy: a-b8 c6-o8 alternately p-s6 s6 blank and original; A-B8 C-D6 E8-K6 alternately L4 M5 M6 final blank lacking. With the famous woodcut portrait of Aesop on the verso of a1 and a smaller woodcut portrait of Brant on the verso of A1 in part two. A total of 335 woodcuts divided into 194 in part one and 141 in part two inclusive of the portraits. Text in Latin. <br/><br/>Full black straight-grain morocco. Boards ruled in gilt with gilt dentelles. Spine stamped and lettered in gilt. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Generous margins. Previous owner's small bookplate on front pastedown. This copy has been very carefully restored and generally presents quite well. Certain passages were deemed obscene shortly after publication and as a consequence most known copies have a few sections defaced. This copy is no different with a number of passages and illustrations crossed out and/or marked "no legas" "do not read". A number of leaves have had small marginal tears or wormholes repaired occasionally affecting a letter or a word. One leaf C4 with a small hole affecting the woodcut on the recto and two or three words on the verso. A few leaves have been remargined including the title page to part 2 leaf A1. In two places leaves are bound out of order. The flaws notwithstanding a lovely book.<br/><br/>The plan of this edition was conceived by Sebastian Brant. The first part of the book is based on Johann Zainer's first illustrated edition of 1476-77 translated into Latin by Heinrich Steinhöwel. Brant expands the work polishes the language and includes his commentaries to these fables. The second part is an entirely new work by Brant of 140 fables riddles accounts of miracles and other wonders of nature. These 140 new chapters follow the same structure as the first section with a woodcut followed by verse and then prose "some of a very remarkable character" according to Hugh W. Davies Fairfax Murray. These compositions are taken from the works of Stace Juvenal Virgil Ovid Lucien. The first story taken from Hesiod is said to be the oldest known fable.<br/><br/>"The numerous woodcuts in this volume fall into two distinct categories. The woodcuts in the first part with a few exceptions are rather simplistic and naive in execution and are based in reverse on the woodcuts from Zainer's successful Ulm edition of c.1476 incidentally the first illustrated edition of Aesop; the actual blocks were first used in Wolff's edition of not after 1489 Goff A115. The woodcuts of the second part are more sophisticated with the use of hatching and perspective to enliven the images and they were cut specifically for this edition; is it thought they were produced by the workshop of Johann Grüninger in Strassburg" Sotheby's. According to Hugh W. Davies "The remainder of the cuts are by a new artist the style entirely differing from the older blocks. These are heavily shaded by thin close parallel lines amalgamating into a solid mass in the deepest shadows. The perspective as a rule is fair: the faces are well rounded the noses being broad at the bridge but well-shaped. The cuts have the appearance of metal but they nevertheless are probably on wood."<br/><br/>In the past 30 years there have been five other auction results for this book one copy selling twice. The average price achieved in those five sales including the buyer's premium is just under $119000. If we average just the two copies sold in the last ten years that average jumps to over $167000. Of those five results the lowest sale price from 2002 made over $81000. And finally to complete the analysis a particularly fine copy was offered by the trade in 2014 for 200000 pounds roughly $329000. So while our copy has its defects and imperfections as do almost all other copies it is priced competitively for such a lovely and important work. <br/><br/> Fairfax Murray 20. Goed. I 390 24. Adams A291. Jacob Wolff of Pforzheim unknown books
