Sixth edition of the fables of Ivan Ivanovitch Khemnitser (1745-1784), one of the earliest Russian fabulists, in a handsome contemporary binding, and beautifully printed on thick paper. The first edition was published anonymously in 1779, and contained 33 fables; a second part was added in subsequent editions printed in Khemnitser’s lifetime, and a third in 1799. Further testament to the Fables’ popularity, other editions were printed in the same year as the present, one in Russian, printed in St Petersburg (the fifth edition), and a French edition, also printed in Moscow. All editions are rare: of the present we have found just five copies, and of the first, just one, in Germany.
The son of a German physician from Chemnitz, and thus a native German speaker, Ivan Khemnitser or Chemnitzer was one of a trio of Russian writers - along with Ivan Dmitriyev, and Ivan Krylov - credited with introducing the fable into Russian literature. Of those three, Khemnitser was the first, preceding his better-known, near-contemporary Krylov. His writing drew on the established, Aesopic fabulistic tradition, along with trends in eighteenth-century European fable writing, in particular La Fontaine. ‘The first Russian fabulist to sound an original note [Khemnitser’s] fables give something more than a foretaste of Krylóv and are written in an admirable, vigorous, popular language. Some of them are among the few eighteenth-century poems that have remained universally popular ever since’ (Mirski, 47).
Offsetting on a few leaves indicates that an early owner has pressed flowers between the pages of this volume.
Staining to head of first few leaves, title and frontispiece well-thumbed, browned, closed tear to engraved frontispiece, touching portrait.
D. S. Mirsky, F.J. Whitfield (ed.), ‘The Age of Classicism’, A History of Russian Literature (US edition, 1968), p.47.
OCLC: Library of Congress, Kansas, Duke, Michigan, Long Beach Public Library (CA).
