Phaedri, Augusti Caesaris Liberti, Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri Quinque: notis perpetuis illustrati, & cum integris aliorum observationibus in lucem editi a Johanne Laurentio Jcto.

Amsterdam: Johannem Janssonium and Elizei Wyerstraet, 1667. AESOP. Full Description:

PHAEDRUS. [AESOP]. Phaedri, Augusti Caesaris Liberti, Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri Quinque. Notis perpetuis illustrati, & cum integris aliorum observationibus in lucem editi a Johanne Laurentio Jcto. Amsterdam: Johannem Janssonium and Elizei Wyerstraet, 1667.

The first illustrated edition of Phaedrus to be published in the Netherlands and the first and only Laurentius edition. With Octavo (7 x 4 1/2 inches; 180 x 115 mm). [62], 462, [204, Index Vocabulorum] pp. Index Vocabulorum is 102 leaves including one blank. Illustrated with additional engraved title-page by Christian Hagen and 103 half-page vignette engravings in the text. This copy complete with all engravings including the often canceled Brothel illustration on page 276. This edition contains the text of 92 Phaedrus fables with extensive annotations. An earlier edition of of 1596 published by Pierre Pithou contained only 64 fables.

Full contemporary vellum. Title in ink manuscript on spine. Yapp edges. Top edges dyed brown. Vellum a bit soiled. Previous owner's bookplate on front pastedown. Some very light dampstaining to a few pages of rear index. Overall an about fine, crisp copy.

"Roman fabulist, the first writer to Latinize whole books of fables, producing free versions in iambic metre of Greek prose fables then circulating under the name of Aesop." (Britannica)

Phaedrus was "the author (in Latin) of a collection of fables in five books containing some hundred stories, published probably in the thirties of the first century AD. There is also an appendix of another thirty-two fables, probably also by Phaedrus. The collection includes fables proper, a number of anecdotes (e.g. about Aesop, Socrates, and Menander), and defences of the author against detractors. The fables are based on those of Aesop and on beast-stories from other sources which had come to be attributed to Aesop. They are written in verse...and their object is two-fold, to give advice and to entertain. They are generally serious or satirical, dealing with the injustices of life and social and political evils, but occasionally they are light and amusing. In general they express patient resignation...Many of the stories are well known to us, having been handed down...through medieval times to the present day. They include ‘The Wolf and the Lamb', ‘The Fox and the Sour Grapes' and ‘King Log and King Watersnake'" (The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature).

Brunet IV: 588. Landwehr, Emblem books Low Countries F143.

HBS 68906.

$2,750.