FINE BOOK # 4 Aesopus semper vivus - Peter Bichsel · Fine Books

A E S O P U S S E M P E R V I V U S
Gheeraerts, were published for the first time in 1666. Text and illustrations were published together
for the first time in the present edition by Estienne Roger, who took over Barlow’s plates
in 1704. – Bodemann 101.1; Fabula docet 13; Landwehr 99; Cohen/de Ricci 350 («livre assez
rare»); Sander 620. – Modern ex-libris «L. H. Dorrenboom» on first paste-down. Few contemp.
ms. additions to the «reflexions». Tear in lower white margin of leaf k1. Leaf A3 restored
on verso with loss of some text. Frontispiece reinforced from verso, plate between pages LX and
LXI with supplied lower margin. Spot on title. Minor browning throughout, a good copy in all.
10 La Motte, (Antoine Houdard de). Fables nouvelles, dédiées au
roy. Avec un discours sur la fable. With engr. frontispiece, after Coypel by Tardieu,
engr. title-vignette, and 101 engr. vignettes in the text by Gillot, Picart, a.o. XLII, 358,
(2) pp. Royal 4to. Contemp. calf over 5 raised bands. Spine gilt with label. Marbled
end-papers (outer front hinge starting).
Paris, (J. B. Coignard for) Grégoire Dupuis, 1719. CHF 4’800.– (EUR 3’200.–)
First edition (large paper copy) of La Motte’s 100 fables, divided into five books and together
with his theoretical «Discours sur la fable». La Motte (1672–1731), a progressive exponent in
the second so called «querelle des anciens et des modernes», can be considered the most important
fabulist after La Fontaine. His personal aim was to achieve the renown of both Aesop and
La Fontaine at the same time. With the introducing dedicatory fable «La Belle et le miroir», La
Motte tries not only to honour and advise the young King Louis XV but also to give an example
of his own stilistic ideals like «vraisemblence», «unité», and «bienséance». The copper vignettes
of which two thirds are designed and engraved by Watteau’s master Claude Gillot (1673–
1722) are an early highlight of French rococo illustration. «The unerring taste, the originality of
composition, and a great ability to create with a few strokes a background and a mood, all these
acted together to bring forth one of the most beautiful illustrated books of the 18th century»
(Fürstenberg, Das französische Buch im 18. Jahrhundert, p. 53). In some later copies an index
printed on different paper is found at the end of the preface. Our copy has a title index in a contemporary
hand at the end of the book. – Bodemann 105.1; Fabula docet 94; Cohen/de Ricci
594f. («Très belle édition rare et recherchée»); Cioranescu 36530; Brunet III, 801; Sander
1095. – Few small marginal tears, minor waterstain to lower margins in book V. Some foxing to
margins of first leaves, occasional spots throughout.
11 Gay, (John). Fables. 2 vols. With engr. title vignette, and 51 text
vignettes by John Wootton and William Kent (vol. I) and frontispiece, 16 copper plates,
and title vignette by Hubert-François Gravelot (vol. II). (7) leaves, 173 pp.; (4) lea-
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