Very attractive edition of Aesop’s fables and the first to use the charming woodcuts of Virgil Solis, most of which are signed with his initials. One of the cuts is signed “H H” and Fairfax Murray suggests that this may be the artist who designed the eagle in Ruxner’s Thurnierbuch, Simmern, 1532. In the same year the same trio of printers produced another edition of Aesop’s fables with the text in Latin and German, with 194 cuts, most of them signed by Solis.
In our edition, the work begins with Planudes’ lengthy life of Aesop, illustrated with 13 cuts, followed by verses of the poet laureate Johann Lauterbach and Hartmann Schopper. In some copies there is a two-leaf preface printed on a bifolium with signatures A1-2; it appears that this was printed separately and it may not have been issued with all copies. It is not found in the Harvard copy, but it is present in the copy in the British Library and in the Pierpont Morgan copy it is bound at the end. The one copy in OCLC (NYPL copy) also appears to be without the preface. VD16 lists copies at Munich (Bayersstaatsbibliotheek) and Wolfenbuttel, both with the same collation as our copy.
Bookplate of Theodore Low de Vinne (1828 - 1914), founder of the de Vinne press who became the finest American printer of his day and did much to promote fine printing. He was also the author of numerous articles on early printing. His very fine collection was sold in New York in January 1920 at the Anderson galleries when the Aesop appeared as lot 698.
Lower outer corner of pp. 72/3 restored affecting one or two letters, a few insignificant stains and repairs but generally a fresh copy with excellent impressions of the woodcuts.
Hoffmann I, 80. Fairfax Murray no, 22 (German and Latin edition). Not in Adams or Schweiger.
