Aesop. 1667 Phaedri... Fabularum Aesopiarum, Laurentio. The explicit illustration present and without censoring

1st edition thus, of Aesop's Fables, as printed by Laurentius in 1667 and including over 100 engravings; this copy with the explicit engravings (pages 276 and 279) depicting a brothel unaltered, which is rare due to centuries of censorship to the rather coarse illustrations.

The completeness of this edition is often mentioned for its completeness, as it contains ninety-two of the Phaedrus fables. Each fable is richly annotated.

Several interesting things reveal themselves regarding the illustrations. They were printed after the text, and sometimes the borders may overlap. And, there are interesting corrections; on page 133 an engraving has been pasted over the printed (which was mistakenly the engraving for 205). Again, the 205 engraving appeared on 194, where it was again pasted over. And, finally, on 205, the 194 engraving was printed, which was then pasted over by the correct engraving for 205. For all three of these, you can see what was originally printed by either lifting the corner of the pasted-over engraving, or by seeing the backside of the leaf.

About Aesop's Fables -

Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. The first extensive translation of Aesop into Latin iambic trimeters was performed by Phaedrus, a freedman of Augustus in the 1st century CE, although at least one fable had already been translated by the poet Ennius two centuries before, and others are referred to in the work of Horace.

Bibliographic Details -

Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) number 1804349, found in 13 of the world's best libraries.

Richly referenced. One of my favorites, for its simplicity, comes from Greg Carlson (the Carlson Fable Collection, online) and he writes of this edition:

We have a title-page and the glorious frontispiece featuring a Roman Emperor, Phaedrus, and Aesop. Bodemann #75.1 notes the number of dedications that open the book... The illustrations for each fable are uniformly just over 3½" by 2¾". According to Bodemann, they have few known sources. They tend to portray several phases of a fable at once; for example, on 43 we see in the foreground the stag admiring his image in the water. Further back and to the right, we see the dogs catching the stag as the hunter stands by. Similarly, we see both phases of FS on 78. The illustrations are strong and well preserved. They were printed in a separate phase from the texts, as is clear for example on 25, where the illustration overlaps the bottom of the title. I seem to remember many of the images from various sources, like the dramatic pose of the Aesop statue on 128. Page 194 has a second illustration pasted in over the original illustration for III 12, "Pullus ad Margaritam." The same on 205 for "Canis ad Agnum," III 15. Several fables, like V 2, seem to have some lines expurgated and replaced with asterisks. I am unsure why. The fables are followed by significant sections of "Variae Lectiones," "Notae Guyeti," "Vocabulorum," and an "Index Rerum et Verborum." The final page has a list of errata.

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx. 11.5 x 19 x 3.5 cm. Mottled leather binding of the 18th century style. Boards with a single gilt fillet frame. Spine with four raised bands; four compartments with a central gilt flower stamp, and one with the title in gilt (but the gilt is largely lost as the mottling has reduced the outer layer of the leather. The text block edges are sprinkled red. Top-edge is darkened. Double endbands of white and blue.

Illustrated; bibliographies record 103 engravings. I did personally check the collation (signed numbers at the bottom of each page) and this copy is complete, including the often lost two blank leaves at the rear (I shined a light through to make sure they matched the 6th leaf in the gathering).

Pages - 32 leaves of prefatory material (signed * to ****8), 462 numbered pages (ending on Ff7verso, leaves signed Ff8 to end (TT8) are index.

Collation - * to ****8, A-Z8, Aa-Tt8

Condition -

See pictures. Some loss of leather where mottled, some loss of gilt. Still, the binding is performing well. Some small wear to leather at board edges. Rubbing on back board. Start of a crack at ends of joints. Hinge is cracked inside, exposing ties/crash at gutter. Pastedown and flyleaf with pasted, stamped, written and erased bibliographic and shelf mark annotations. Blank bookbinder's endpaper shaken (slightly loose) and proud.

Text block with some toning and occasional rust spots, candle ember mark and thumb throughout. Top corner Y3 chipped away, no text affected. Small ink spot along fore-edge, at rear; just shows on printed page fore-edge margin.

Mostly, a nice copy; very few thumbs (I saw just several), no page edge chips and no annotations.