Lot no. 74
LA FONTAINE (Jean de). Contes et nouvelles en vers. Nouvelle édition enrichie de tailles-douces. Amsterdam, Henry Desbordes, 1685. 2 volumes in one in-12, blue morocco, triple gilt fillet, gilt emblem in the centre, spine decorated, inner lace, gilt edges (R. Petit). First collective edition and first illustrated edition published during the author's lifetime. It contains all of La Fontaine's tales, with the exception of the six he published the same year in Ouvrages de prose et de poésie in collaboration with Maucroix, and the tale Le Quiproquo, which was not published until after his death. The illustration includes a frontispiece and 58 mid-page figures drawn and etched by Romeyn de Hooghe, of whom this is one of the masterpieces. This is the only contemporary illustration of the text and "the most vivid of all those that have taken this famous book as a pretext", according to Hoefer. This is the second of three editions published under this date. A very fine copy bound by Rémy Petit in the second half of the 19th century. From the library of Isidoro Fernandez (2013, n°291), with supralibris and bookplate. Copy a little short of margins and very slightly foxed, small ink stain in the margin of the last leaves. Rochambeau, Contes, n°28 - Landwehr, Romeyn de Hooghe, n°62 - Tchemerzine, III, 859.
See original version (French)
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