Print Description
Jean de la FONTAINE – Contes et Nouvelles en Vers de Monsieur de la Fontaine. Tome Premier – Tome Second.
Amsterdam: Henry Desbordes, 1685. 2 vols. in 1, 12mo., [xvi], 236, [viii], 216 pp.
With an etched title plate and 58 half-page etchings at the head of each new fable, all by Romeyn de Hooghe.
Contemporary full calf with four raised bands and gilt decoration to the spine.
The first illustrated edition of the Contes et Nouvelles by Jean de la Fontaine. Publication of the scandalous fables was forbidden in France from 1674. According to Van Eeghen, this edition was published without knowledge of La Fontaine.
References: Brunet (1814) I 515; Landwehr 62; Van Eeghen (Amsterdam 1965) III, p.89. This is the edition with ‘Le Juge de Nêle’ (instead of Mesle) in the contents of the first volume, as well as page 211 for Dissertation sur la Joconde; 16 lines of text on page 211; and 19 lines of text on the first page of the preface of volume 2. Three editions were published in the same year.
Binding intact but fair: leather cracked and chipped, the spine partly broken. Inside fine, bookplates on both inside front and rear boards. Some scattered soiling and a few small creases. Inside hinges visible but strong.
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