The Fables of Jean de la Fontaine. With a Leaf from the Memorial Edition of the 'Fables Choisies,' illustrated by Jean-Baptiste Oudry and printed in Paris by Charles-Antoine Jombert 1755-59

Los Angeles: Dawson's Book Shop, 1964 One of 125 copies printed by Saul and Lillian Marks at the Plantin Press. . Thick gray paper wrappers with a printed paper spine label. . Large folio. With two original leaves (16 1/2" x 11") laid in. The leaves in this copy are the text of "Fable IX Le GeaI Paré des Plumes du Paon" and its accompanying copper engraved plate. Monograph by Frances Brewer. Wrappers have minor light wear, else a fine copy in a slightly rubbed marbled board slipcase. Brewer's work provides a fascinating history of La Fontaine's life in addition to the beautiful Memorial Edition of his Fables, published approximately fifty years after his death. La Fontaine (1621-1695) was a contemporary of Charles Perrault and a member of the quarter "Rue de Vieux Colombier," famous in French literary history, which consisted of Racine, Boileau, and Moliére. His work consists of 239 fables, divided into twelve books. His first collection of Fables Choisies was divided up into six books in two volumes; these were adapted from the works of Aesop, Babrius, and Phaedrus and dedicated to "Monseigneur" Louis, le Grand Dauphin, the son of Louis XIV. Books Seven and Eight appeared in 1678 and Nine, Ten, and Eleven appeared in 1679. When Book Twelve was published, it was dedicated to the king's grandchild, Louis, Duke of Burgundy. In the later books of the Fables, La Fontaine drew upon the Indian Bidpai for the oriental fables that had come to the French through translations from the Persian. The most likely source for La Fontaine was the pseudonymous version by Gilbert Gaumin, entitled Les Livres des lumières ou la Conduite de Roys...Additional sources were Horace, Avienus, the earlier French writers Rabelais, Clément Marot, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, and others