Peter Bichsel   Fine Books

Laurentius, Johannes. Fabularum Aesopiarum libri quinque.

With frontispiece engr. by Chr. Hagens, and 103 engr. vignettes in the text. Title, (60), 462 pp., blank leaf, (204) pp index, 2 blank leaves. 8vo. Contemp. full vellum. – Amsterdam, Johannes Jansson van Waesberge and widow of Elizeus Weyerstraet, 1667.

Authoritative edition of Phaedrus, compiled and annotated by the jurist and Jesuit Johannes Laurentius. As other editors of his time, Laurentius’s commentary to the fables has a special focus on juridical use. The 103 anonymous illustrations to the fables don’t follow any known examples. Their motifs point forward to the illustrations of Jan van Vianen in the early 18th century. In the present copy the correct illustrations to the prologue and fable XV of book III are separately inserted as mounted single leaves to replace the wrong engravings printed onto the page. – Bodemann 75.1; Fabula docet 68; Brunet IV, 588 (“recherchée … par rapport aux figures”); Ebert 16583. Not in Landwehr. – Engr. ex-libris with erased owner’s name on first paste-down. A very clean copy. – Best.-Nr. 5433