Fabulae centum ex antiquis auctoribus delectae [...]

Faernus. Faerno (Gabriele),

Fabulae centum ex antiquis auctoribus delectae [...]

Carminibus Explicatae,

Description: FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. Engraved title and 100 numbered full-page engravings (with text on reverse); a few plates off registration to varying degrees; some light browning and staining, occasional marginal worm holes, all minor, no loss; ff. [4], 100, 4to; contemporary Italian goatskin, elaborately gilt, with a design comprising strapwork and small floral and ornamental hand tools, including acorns and pomegranates, gilt and gauffered edges; provenance: bookplate of the German-Brazilian bibliophile and book collector, Herbert Eberhard Herring.

Publication Details: Rome: [P. Manutius for] Vincent Luchino, [colophon:] 1563.

Notes: First edition, first issue (others are dated 1564 and 1565) of this influential sixteenth-century volume of one hundred fables, collected and translated by the humanist scholar Gabriele Faerno (1510-1561). This compendium was commissioned from Faerno by Pius IV, and published posthumously after editing by S. Antoniano. The majority of the fables are from Aesop, some come from other classical sources, and a handful are contemporary, such as the Tale of the drowned Woman and her Husband, and The Miller, his Son and the Donkey. The work, which influenced Perrault, is a cornerstone of the fable 'g...moreFirst edition, first issue (others are dated 1564 and 1565) of this influential sixteenth-century volume of one hundred fables, collected and translated by the humanist scholar Gabriele Faerno (1510-1561). This compendium was commissioned from Faerno by Pius IV, and published posthumously after editing by S. Antoniano. The majority of the fables are from Aesop, some come from other classical sources, and a handful are contemporary, such as the Tale of the drowned Woman and her Husband, and The Miller, his Son and the Donkey. The work, which influenced Perrault, is a cornerstone of the fable 'genre'.The origin of the numbered illustrations has been the subject of much speculation; for a time they were thought to be after designs by Raphael, and were later attributed to Titian. They are now believed to be the work of Faerno's friend and associate Pirro Ligorio (see: Erna Mandowsky, 'Pirro Ligorio's Illustrations to Aesop's Fables' Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, v. 24, 1961, p. 327-331). An old catalogue description, tipped in, laments the shaky execution of some of the etchings: 'It really is a pity, that the printer of the plates was not a better craftsman, as all copies of this book contain, like ours, bad or weak impressions together with fairly good or good ones. Of course the illustration of books with copperplate, which wanted an entirely new technique of printing, was not at all customary in this early period [...] It is not quite so surprising therefore, that these early attempts were not all successful.' Mortimer concurs: 'several of the plates having slipped in the press'. The illustrations are no less charming for their varying quality, and are very expressive. A very attractive copy in a contemporary Italian binding, of this important work. HIDE

Bibliography: Adams Cambridge, I, F 115; Brunet, II, 1160; Praz, p. 57. Harvard/Mortimer Italian 178.

Enquire about this book

Price: £10,500

Subject: Antiquarian

Published Date: [colophon:] 1563.

Stock Number: 75100

(Your basket is currently empty)