Aesop; Theodorus, Prodromus (1100-1166)

AESOPI PHRYGIS FABULAE GRAECE ET LATINE [Bound With] GALEOMYOMACHIA, HOCEST, FELIUM & MURIUM PUGNA

Basileæ: In Officina Heruagiana [Johann Herwagen]; [Johannes Froben], 1538/1518. Octavo, a-x8, y7, A8, B4. In Very Good condition. Bound in 17th-century calf with plain paneled spine. Binding shows moderate rubbing and wear and minor worming. Second title page trimmed at top. Text block with small holes in upper and lower gutters of the entire first part from previous binding; mild soiling throughout. Scattered marginalia and underlining, including extensive minute annotations in an early faded 16th century hand around the rear printer's mark. Other minor annotations throughout, notably in English on Midas on page 315. Fitzwilliam family provenance to the recto and verso of the front free end paper in several early hands. Lacking y8-z8. The wanting leaves of the 1538 edition substituted after 350 with new pagination of 106-126 with the Galeomyomachia in Greek only from the 1518 Froben edition of Aesopi Phrygis vita et fabellæ, cum latina interpretatione. This is an early substitution (17th century or earlier), as the text block is integral and the binding unrestored. Printer's device on title page and on verso of last leaf and wide margins. Text in Greek and Latin on facing pages for the Aesop, Greek only for the Galeomyomachia. Scarce. PD Consignment. Shelved in Case 3.

1331015

Shelved Dupont Bookstore

Price: $4,000

NOTES

A 1538 edition of Aesop's Fables printed by Johann Herwagen with an appended 1518 edition of the Galeomyomachia [Battle of Cats and Mice] printed by Johann Froben. Galeomyomachia is usually found bound with five other printings by Froben from the year 1518.

There are several annotations relating to this copy's Fitzwilliam family provenance on the recto and verso of the front free end paper. The largest, written in a child's hand on the recto of the front free endpaper, states playfully: "William Fitzwilliam not his Book but John Fitzwilliam his booke." John Fitzwilliam's name is written twice on the verso of the same leaf, with a Latin inscription above it, reading "Quisquis in hunc librum teneros convertit] ocellos / Nomen subcriptum [sic] perlegat ille [sic] meu / John Fitzwilliam" ["May anyone who turns his tender eyes on this book read the name of John Fitzwilliam"].

USTC 608058. The USTC lists 15 copies of this work, fourteen of which are in Europe and one of which is at the University of Toronto.