Les fables d'Esope, avec cent vingt-trois figures dÕapr s Barlow. Collection de gravures piquantes et dÕapologues ing nieux pour lÕamusement et lÕinstruction de la jeunesse.

Aesop.

Published by Paris: chez Henri Tardieu, Libraire, Rue et Maison des Mathurins, [1810].

About this Item

Barlow (ca. 1626 Ð 1704), a painter, etcher, and illustrator, is known as Òthe father of British sporting paintingÓ and was ÒBritainÕs first wildlife painter, beginning a tradition that reached a high-point a century later, in the work of George Stubbs. He was furthermore a pioneer in the history of comics by creatingÊA True Narrative of the Horrid Hellish Popish PlotÊ(c. 1682), a picture story about the life of Titus Oates and the Popish Plot, which is told in a series of illustrated sequences where the story is written underneath them and the characters depicted on those images use speech balloons to talkÓ (Tate Britain website). BarlowÕs edition of Aesop was published by William Godbid in 1666. Few copies of the first edition remain, as many of them were destroyed (along with the printerÕs premises) in the Great Fire of London the same year the edition was published. Two volumes in one, oblong octavo. xvi, 95; iv, 149 in. With 123 full-page engravings by Francis Barlow (including the two frontispieces, one for each volume). Early marbled boards with green roan spine stamped in gilt. Quite clean throughout despite occasional dampstaining and foxing. A very good, wide copy of a scarce edition. First edition from this publisher. Some OCLC records bear dates of 1801 or 1802 for this same edition, though the date on the title-page is Òan X,Ó i.e., 1810. The illustrations are copied from the original images by Barlow, which were first published in 1666. This attractive edition of Aesop features the stories retold for the Òamusement and instruction of the youth.Ó OCLC records only five copies of this Tardieu edition: four in the United States (Harvard, University of Southern Mississippi, Princeton, UCLA) and one in Germany (Staats- und Universit tsbibliothek Hamburg).

Seller Inventory # 17637

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Les fables d'Esope, avec cent vingt-trois figures dÕapr s Barlow. Collection de gravures piquantes et dÕapologues ing nieux pour lÕamusement et lÕinstruction de la jeunesse.
• Publisher: Paris: chez Henri Tardieu, Libraire, Rue et Maison des Mathurins, [1810].
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good