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Beautifully illustrated by Georg Paul Busch

BELLEGARDE, [Jean Baptiste MORVAN DE].
Les fables d'Esope Phrygien, avec celles de Philelphe. Traduction nouvelle, enrichie de discours moraux &  historiques, & de quatrains à la fin de chaque discours.  On a joint à cette nouvelle traduction les fables diverses de gabrias, d'aviénus, & les contes d'Esope.

With richly engraved frontispiece showing Aesop on a raised stage talking to the people surrounding him, including children, and a group of wild and domestic animals standing and lying down below, engraved emblematic device on title, title printed in red and black, full-page engraved plate illustrating Aesop's life in 6 small scenes, and illustrations to 117 fables of Aesop on 59 full-page engraved plates, all engraved by Berolini after beautiful and strong designs by G.P. Busch.

With richly engraved frontispiece showing Aesop on a raised stage talking to the people surrounding him, including children, and a group of wild and domestic animals standing and lying down below, engraved emblematic device on title, title printed in red and black, full-page engraved plate illustrating Aesop's life in 6 small scenes, and illustrations to 117 fables of Aesop on 59 full-page engraved plates, all engraved by Berolini after beautiful and strong designs by G.P. Busch.

With richly engraved frontispiece showing Aesop on a raised stage talking to the people surrounding him, including children, and a group of wild and domestic animals standing and lying down below, engraved emblematic device on title, title printed in red and black, full-page engraved plate illustrating Aesop's life in 6 small scenes, and illustrations to 117 fables of Aesop on 59 full-page engraved plates, all engraved by Berolini after beautiful and strong designs by G.P. Busch.

With richly engraved frontispiece showing Aesop on a raised stage talking to the people surrounding him, including children, and a group of wild and domestic animals standing and lying down below, engraved emblematic device on title, title printed in red and black, full-page engraved plate illustrating Aesop's life in 6 small scenes, and illustrations to 117 fables of Aesop on 59 full-page engraved plates, all engraved by Berolini after beautiful and strong designs by G.P. Busch.

With richly engraved frontispiece showing Aesop on a raised stage talking to the people surrounding him, including children, and a group of wild and domestic animals standing and lying down below, engraved emblematic device on title, title printed in red and black, full-page engraved plate illustrating Aesop's life in 6 small scenes, and illustrations to 117 fables of Aesop on 59 full-page engraved plates, all engraved by Berolini after beautiful and strong designs by G.P. Busch.



Amsterdam, Jean Pierre Schmid, 1736. Sm. 8vo. Contemp. calf, spine ribbed and richly gilt, red mottled edges. With richly engraved frontispiece showing Aesop on a raised stage talking to the people surrounding him, including children, and a group of wild and domestic animals standing and lying down below, engraved emblematic device on title, title printed in red and black, full-page engraved plate illustrating Aesop's life in 6 small scenes, and illustrations to 117 fables of Aesop on 59 full-page engraved plates, all engraved by Berolini after beautiful and strong designs by G.P. Busch. 477, (9) pp.

Rare and beautifully illustrated new edition of Aesop's fables, with extensive discussion of the moral of each fable and a four-line verse at the end of each fable as well, by Jean Baptiste Morvan de Bellegarde (1648-1734). He added the fables of the Latin poet Philelphus, 18 in all, and the fables based on Aesop by Gabrias and Avienus, 37 in total, with the larger fables added: the "Battle of the Cats and the Rats", and the "Battle of the Rats and the Frogs". Thereafter follow 5 "Tales" of Aesop, taken from Plato's dialogue "Protagoras", another six "Poetical fables", with Olympian Gods as protagonists, two more "Tales", one taken from Herodot, and a last fable, taken from Gerbellius.
But as interesting as the contents are, much more interesting are the beautiful fable illustrations by Georg Paul Busch, a Berlin copper-engraver who died in 1756. The animals and intentions of Aesop's fables are drawn with a firm and certain hand in clear and rather "sec" scenes and movements, with the strong contrasts in black and white working as a kind of "colour" for the plates. The original frontispiece, which brings the traditional theme of "Aesop ruling the animals" to its finale, and clearly informs the reader that the book is a fable book, is found reproduced in "Fabula Docet". The present edition in one volume seems to be unknown to bibliographers.

Fine copy.- (Binding sl. rubbed, top and bottom of spine sl. worn).
This ed. unrecorded; Fabula Docet 124, and reproduction of the frontispiece on p. 193 (describes an incomplete ed. Utrecht, 1734); this ed. not in Landwehr, Emblem & Fable Books; Landwehr, Emblem & Fable Books, FO62-F064 (Amst. and Utrecht ed. in 2 vols. from 1708, and 1734 and 1752 resp.); not in Anne Stevenson Hobbs, Fables, or in The Fox and the Grapes, Checklist Aesopic Fables Pierpont Morgan Library.

Related Subjects: 18th Century  Children's Books  Fable Books  French 

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