Esope

Æsop's Fables with His Life: in English French and Latin. Newly Translated

05078 — London: Printed by H. Hills jun. for Francis Barlow and are to be sold by Chr. Wilkinson Tho. Fox and Henry Faithorne 1687. The First Edition To Contain The Thirty-One Magnificent Full-Page Engravings<br/>Including The Rare Suppressed Plate Number Seventeen<br/>A Lovely Copy in Late Nineteenth Century Straight-Grain Roan<br/><br/>AESOP. Æsop's Fables with His Life: in English French and Latin. Newly Translated. Illustrated with One hundred and twelve Sculptures. To this Edition are likewise added Thirty one New Figures representing his Life. By Francis Barlow. London: Printed by H. Hills jun. for Francis Barlow and are to be sold by Chr. Wilkinson Tho. Fox and Henry Faithorne 1687. <br/><br/>Second edition first published in 1666. Virtually all copies of the first edition were destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666. This is the first edition to contain the additional thirty-one full-page engraved plates.<br/><br/>Folio 11 3/4 x 7 9/16 inches; 300 x 195 mm. 2 blank verso engraved pictorial title 2 title verso blank 2 To the Reader verso blank 2 dedication 2 blank verso full-page engraving of Aesop surrounded by animals and birds 40 40 17 2-221 2 Table verso blank pp. Full page engraved plate of the arms of the Earl of Devonshire and thirty-one including the suppressed plate No. 17 "Oft for a jest we expose our modesty" which is often suppressed excised or defaced full page engraved plates by Thomas Dudley after Francis Barlow illustrating the life of Aesop and 110 half page engravings in the text. The thirty-one additional plates are bound within the forty pages of English text. These plates were engraved in 1678 - this second edition is the first to contain these superb engravings. <br/><br/>Bound ca. 1876 in full maroon straight-grain roan covers decoratively ruled and paneled in gilt spine with six raised bands elaborately decorated and lettered in gilt in compartments gilt-ruled board edges and decorative gilt turn-ins all edges gilt. <br/><br/>A sophisticated copy an example of the fashion towards the end of the 19th century of improving copies with a pencil note on the verso of the initial binder's blank "The best impressions were picked from two copies to make this a very choice copy of the book. Robert Roberts. Boston Oct 9/1876". The 17th plate "Oft for a jest we expose our modesty." which was often suppressed excised or defaced is here present and unmutilated. Neat pencilled presentation inscription dated 1925 to front free endpaper 1735 ink ownership signature at top margin of title-page. Small expert and almost invisible paper repairs to blank margins of engraved title page small hole 1/2 x 3/16 inch neatly repaired hardly affecting image on plate 14. Small neat marginal repairs to O2 pp. 35/36 V2 pp. 59/60 small hole repaired on BB2 pp. 79/80 - just touching image on recto and two letters on verso and top corner of EE2 pp. 91/92 expertly renewed with loss of page number on p.92. Occasional minimal light soiling and or foxing but overall a clean and crisp example of this magnificent and beautiful edition.<br/><br/>For this second edition of his magnificent production Barlow commissioned Aphra Behn then at the height of her popularity as a playwright poet and translator to write a quatrain summarizing the fable and to be engraved on the 110 plates illustrating the fables. In order to substitute Behn's verses for those of Thomas Philipot d. 1682 the lower area of the plate needed to be burnished down and the new verses engraved onto the plate in place of the earlier ones. "The workman doing the burnishing feared damaging the bottom border of the design above the verse: in many places traces of the tops of the letters in Philipot's top lines remain. In a few instances a small new plate for the new verse had to be inserted."Hodnett.<br/><br/>"I Conceive it necessary to say concerning the Present Edition of this Work; That it exceeds the Former by a careful Correction of the Latin Copy and by a more Exact Translation from the Latest and Best French Edition. The Life of Aesop likewise is illustrated with Thirty one new Copper Plates.<br/><br/>The Ingenious Mrs. A. Behn has been so obliging as to perform the English Poetry which in short comprehends the Sense of the Fable and Moral: Whereof to say much were needless since it may sufficiently recommend it self to all Persons of Understanding." To the Reader leaf. <br/><br/>"The fables and plates are printed here in the same manner as in the first edition the French version on the verso of each leaf facing the plate and Latin version on the recto of the following leaf. The thirty-one additional plates illustrating the life of Æsop are placed at the end of the volume. They are preceded by the plate representing Æsop surrounded by animals and birds which formed the first plate to the first edition. Plate No. 17 is usually wanting being generally removed as too free a character. Nearly all of them are signed "Tho: Dudley fecit". Grolier Wither to Prior. <br/><br/>Francis Barlow 1626-1704 was the first English-born book illustrator. He was also the first English etcher modern animal and bird artist recorder of sporting scenes political cartoonist and possibly modern landscape artist. The lifelikeness of his animal and bird drawings prints and paintings attracted the admiration of the founders of the Royal Society and allied him with the scientific spirit of the seventeenth century. Barlow was moreover an interesting illustrator of great freshness and vigor." Edward Hodnett. Five Centuries of English Book Illustration p. 54.<br/><br/>"This seventeenth-century polyglot English-French-Latin Aesop is handsomely illustrated with engravings after designs by Francis Barlow 1626-1702 an English painter renowned for his pictures of country life and field sports. He was perhaps the finest English draughtsman of animal scenes in the seventeenth century. Barlow who published the book at his own expense explains in his preface that he intends the work to contribute to the education of young people. This is the first edition; the relatively few copies known are all survivors of the Great Fire of London which swept over the printer's premises in 1666" Morgan Library Early Children's Books - citing the 1666 first edition.<br/><br/>Felix Thornley Cobbold 1841-1909 was a British barrister and Liberal Party politician. Cobbold was the son of John Cobbold Member of Parliament for Ipswich and his wife Lucy daughter of Henry Patteson sometime Rector of Drinkstone and of Wortham Suffolk. John Cobbold Thomas Cobbold and Nathaniel Cobbold grandfather of Cameron Cobbold 1st Baron Cobbold were his elder brothers. He was educated at King's College Cambridge and later became a senior fellow of this college. Cobbold also sat as Member of Parliament for Stowmarket in Suffolk between 1885 and 1886 and for Ipswich between 1906 and his death. In 1895 he presented Christchurch Mansion to the town of Ipswich as part of an arrangement to preserve the mansion and surrounding Christchurch Park from development. He also bequeathed Gippeswyk Park to Ipswich. Cobbold died in December 1909 aged 68.<br/><br/>Grolier Wither to Prior 666; Hodnett Aesop in England pp. 56-59 and 72; Morgan Library Early Children's Books 9 describing the 1666 first edition; Wing A703; ESTC R22992. London: Printed by H. Hills jun. for Francis Barlow, and are to be sold by Chr. Wilkinson, Tho. Fox, and Henry Faithorne, 1687 unknown books