Esope

Esope — marelibri

THE FABLES OF AESOP. PRINTED FROM THE VERONESE EDITION OF MCCCCLXXIX IN LATIN VERSES AND ITALIAN VERSION BY ACCIO ZUCCO WITH THE WOODCUTS NEWLY ENGRAVED AND COLOURED AFTER A COPY IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. with THE FIRST THREE BOOKS OF CAXTON'S AESOP

réf. ST14304Verona: Officina Bodoni 1973. No. 131 OF 160 COPIES. 255 x 182 mm. 10 x 6 3/8". Two volumes. With an epilogue by Giovanni Mardersteig. Publisher's stiff vellum backed with green morocco top edges gilt. WITH 68 FINE HAND-COLORED WOODCUTS by Ann Bramanti 66 of these full-page colored via pochoir by Daniel Jacomet to recreate the illuminated miniature effect of the British Library colored copy of the Veronese Aesop of 1479 upon which the present edition is based. Printed on Magnani mouldmade paper with goose watermark. Volume I: the Latin text of the 1479 edition with Italian translation; volume II: the English text based on Caxton's 1482 translation. Prospectus laid in. Mardersteig/Schmoller 182. ◆Vellum grain showing variation as always otherwise in mint condition. This beautiful limited edition of Aesop is generally considered to be the finest book from Officina Bodoni and is thought by many to be among the half dozen greatest private press books ever printed. Probably the most important certainly the longest-lived 20th century Continental private press Officina Bodoni was founded in 1922 by Hans Mardersteig who later changed his first name to Giovanni. Like Sweynheym and Pannartz the first printers in Italy Mardersteig was born in Germany but moved to Italy as an adult and set up his hand press in a small village there. Will Carter has called Mardersteig "probably the finest pressman the world has ever seen or is ever likely to see" and it is difficult to overstate the pleasure derived from the precision of the Officina Bodoni books. Based on a beautiful hand-colored copy of the Aesop of Giovanni Alvise the third printer in Verona the Officina Bodoni Aesop celebrates the golden anniversary of Mardersteig's founding of his press. Officina Bodoni unknown books

Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Medieval Manuscripts · États-Unis8 840,00 $US≈ 7 912,64 €

(OFFICINA BODONI). AESOPBiblio.com

THE FABLES OF AESOP. PRINTED FROM THE VERONESE EDITION OF MCCCCLXXIX IN LATIN VERSES AND ITALIAN VERSION BY ACCIO ZUCCO WITH THE WOODCUTS NEWLY ENGRAVED AND COLOURED AFTER A COPY IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. with THE FIRST THREE BOOKS OF CAXTON'S AESOP

Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Medieval Manuscripts · États-Unis8 840,00 $US≈ 7 912,64 €

(BINDINGS - SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE). RACKHAM, ARTHUR, Illustrator AESOPABAA

FABLES

1912réf. ST19901London & New York: William Heinemann & Doubleday Page 1912. No. 863 of 1450 SIGNED by Rackham. With an Introduction by G. K. Chesterton. 290 x 227 mm. 11 1/2 x 9". xxix 1 223 1 pp. SUPERB HONEY-BROWN CRUSHED MOROCCO GILT AND INLAID BY SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE stamp-signed on front turn-in covers with Arts & Crafts-style frame of gilt rules punctuated with inlaid green morocco dots inlaid green morocco Tudor roses at corners with four leafy branches upper cover with gilt titling at head of central panel central gilt-ruled medallion contain the letters "E B" in inlaid blue and green morocco with a collar lettered "XMAS 1912" this surrounded by a wreath of gilt vines and eight inlaid green morocco roses raised bands spine compartments with French fillet frames two panels with gilt lettering turn-ins with multiple gilt rules top edge gilt other edges untrimmed. Housed in a felt-lined buckram clamshell box. With 20 full-page black and white illustrations numerous illustrations in the text and 13 COLOR PLATES as called for each mounted on heavy brown stock and protected by lettered tissue guard. Printed on Large Paper. WITH HAND-ILLUMINATED PRESENTATION LEAF BOUND IN: "TO EDMUND" written in burnished gold surrounded by curling leafy vines in blue orange and green "WITH BEST WISHES FOR A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR" written in black ink an ornament below it in colors and gold and "FROM THE BINDERY / XMAS. 1912." in black and red ink at foot. Front pastedown with engraved bookplate of "EMB" and "EWB"; front free endpaper with ex-libris of L. W. Jordan Jr. and with pencilled inscription "To Roxy from Edmund." Hudson p. 169; Latimore and Haskell pp. 38-39. The typical offsetting on free endpapers from binder's glue used for turn-ins very small very faint areas of transfer from acidic mounts used for color plates wherever tissue guard doesn't fully cover a facing leaf other trivial imperfections but still QUITE A LOVELY COPY clean and fresh internally and in an unworn handsome binding. In a fine binding by an eminent English workshop this is Rackham's take on the famous fables populated with charming animals anthropomorphized to just the right degree along with wistful maidens ancient crones and some seriously sinister trees. Arthur Rackham 1867-1939 studied art at Lambeth School where the work of his fellow student Charles Ricketts influenced his development. As Houfe says soon after Rackham joined the staff of "The Westminster Budget" in 1892 he began concentrating "on the illustration of books and particularly those of a mystical magic or legendary background. He very soon established himself as one of the foremost Edwardian illustrators and was triumphant in the early 1900s when color printing first enabled him to use subtle tints and muted tones to represent age and timelessness. Rackham's imaginative eye saw all forms with the eyes of childhood and created a world that was half reassuring and half frightening. His sources were primarily Victorian and among them are evidently the works of Cruikshank Doyle Houghton and Beardsley but also the prints of Dürer and Altdorfer." After studying under and then working for Douglas Cockerell Francis Sangorski and George Sutcliffe founded their own bindery in 1901 and continued in a successful partnership until 1912. During that year the firm suffered three major blows: their famously splendid jewelled binding dubbed the "Great Omar" was lost on the Titanic; a few weeks after this accident Francis himself drowned; and Francis' brother Alberto who had been a central figure in producing the firm's vellum illuminated manuscripts went over to Riviere. Despite these losses the firm grew and prospered employing a staff of 80 by the mid-1920s and becoming perhaps the most successful English bindery of the 20th century. This special binding was created as a Christmas present and includes a hand-illuminated leaf from the bindery possibly done by Alberto before he moved to Riviere. Such a grand presentation could only have been reserved for a special patron and in this case the "Edmund" would have been Edmund DeWitt Brooks 1866-1919 the substantial bookseller and bibliophile from Minneapolis. The present volume stands as a monument to a very close friendship between Brooks as well as his wife and namesake son on one side of the Atlantic and Sangorski & Sutcliffe on the other. With a special interest in literary works particularly in fine bindings Brooks came to know his supplier through annual book-buying trips abroad see Lee Edmonds Grove's 1945 memoir "Of Brooks & Books" for an account of that relationship. Grove says that the nature of the friendship was so strong that the binders invited Brooks to stay in a specially outfitted room at their premises rather than in a hotel during his London visits. Although our Aesop was inscribed to the father his son Edmund William Brooks 1900-85 so 12 at the time the present volume was signed continued the family connection with Sangorski & Sutcliffe for many years. The "EMB" and "EWB" bookplates belonged to Edmund's wife Edith M. Brooks 1862-1957 and son Edmund who apparently lived together in the family home after the elder Edmund died. Although we don't know the identity of "Roxy" we do know that the "To Roxy from Edmund" inscription is in the same hand as an identical one made--surely by our younger Edmund as printer/publisher--at the front of a copy of "The Book of Ruth" issued in 1934 by the Reed Pale Press that copy being offered for sale in 2022 by Under the Hill Books. William Heinemann & Doubleday, Page unknown books