An appealing copy, beautifully illustrated with more than twenty woodcuts, of the extremely rare, first separate edition of the Life of Aesop. We have found only four copies in US and UK libraries.
Up until this edition, the Vita was only ever printed with the Fables; the text of this edition is in Latin and Italian, and a reprint of the first part of Francisco del Tuppo’s 1485 edition of Aesop, printed in Naples - including del Tuppo’s dedication to Onorato Caetani d’Aragona. That edition in turn was based on Rinuccio d’Arezzo’s Latin translation of the Greek.
Described as ‘magnificent’ in Maggs catalogue 456 (1924), the Venetian woodcuts here are free copies of those - ‘of astonishing originality’ (Met) - in del Tuppo’s Neapolitan edition, and are the work of the same artist who designed the woodcut illustrations for this printer, Bonelli’s, edition of the Fabulae (31 January, 1491/92); all the woodcuts were used for the first time here, aside from the frontispiece (here in facsimile) and the borders which are from the same blocks as the Fabulae. The final illustration of Aesop’s death was too large to fit in the frames and so has been printed between two sidepieces.
The ‘Life’ of Aesop is largely fictional, and known in several medieval versions going back to an original dating from around the first century AD, though its roots are even older (Adrados). Throughout, the fabulist is portrayed as a grotesque, short and portly figure - Planudes’ physical description was of him as ‘a turnip with teeth’ (see ‘Wise Animals’) - an image that endured in illustrated editions of Aesop’s life well beyond fifteenth century editions like this one. It was the disparity between Aesop’s physical appearance and the nature of episodes from his life, in which he acted with great intelligence and substance - that rendered it a useful source for moral instruction; ‘we have, in the Life, the story of the anti-hero from the lower steps of society who laughs at his master and wins everyone’s respect because of his ingeniousness. It is a picture of a “world turned upside down”, like that of the Comedy, in which the slave overcomes his master, the ignorant, the philosophers, the private citizen, kings and whole cities. This is always by means of stratagems, ingenious discoveries, fables, anecdotes, paradoxical explanations, solutions to enigmas, etc.’
Significant paper repairs to margins of A2, affecting text, leaf mounted on stub, paper repairs, diminishing in size, to lower blank margin of leaves A3 to B3, not touching text, well thumbed, first and final leaves a little stained.
OCLC: Harvard, Huntington Library (HL copy also bound in green morocco by Lloyd), Met Museum New York. UK: Oxford.
ISTC ia00110000. Essling 611; Goff A-110; GW 445; Sander 61.
Ref: Planudes cited in C. Ottenhoff & D. Sears, ‘Aesop’s Life and Legend’, in Wise Animals: Aesop and his Followers, Online Exhibition Catalogue (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, 2012). F. R. Adrados, ‘The “Life of Aesop” and the origins of Novel in Antiquity’, Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica I, 1979, pp.93-112. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ‘Vita et Fabulae’ [open access]. See Maggs catalogue no.456, ‘Books, Manuscripts and Bindings remarkable for their Rarity, Beauty and Interest’ (1924), item 3, for another copy.
