THE FABLES OF AESOP

Verona: Officina Bodoni, 1973. Printed from the Veronese edition of MCCCCLXXIX in Latin verses and the Italian version by Accio Zucco, with the woodcuts newly engraved and coloured after a copy in the British Museum. Epilogue [in English] by Giovanni Mardersteig]. Volume I: Pp. 278+[2](blank, colophon), 68 pochoir woodcuts attributed to Liberale da Verona, recut by Anna Bramanti; Volume II: THE FIRST THREE BOOKS OF CAXTON'S AESOP containing the fables illustrated in the Verona Aesopus of MCCCCLXXIX. Pp. 120+[2](blank, colophon); med. 8vo; green morocco spines, lettered and decorated in gilt, 'cloudy' vellum boards, lettered and decorated in gilt, the spines uniformly faded; top edges gilt, others uncut; together within a brown card slipcase, edges slightly worn; bookseller's small stamp at top edge of upper pastedowns; Officina Bodoni, Verona, 1973. One of 130 sets thus [total edition 160]. Barr 91. *Printed on handmade paper watermarked with a goose, like that of the original edition, this reinterpretation of an early illustrated book printed in Verona in 1479 by Giovanni Alvise, was published to mark the 50th anniversary of the Officina Bodoni. A list of the woodcuts, with page numbers, is loosely inserted in Volume I, together with the publisher's prospectus. Volume I contains the Latin text of the 1479 edition, with Accio Zucco's Italian translation. Volume II contains the fables in Caxton's translation, with the first fable and the final six of the Veronese edition (which Caxton did not include), translated from the Latin by Betty Radice. The illustrations were coloured by hand at the Atelier Daniel Jacomet, Paris. 'The Aesop cuts show a rich spectrum of colours with delicate hues that recall miniatures. Mardersteig maintained that only a great master could have made the preliminary drawings for the fable illustrations and had in mind at the outset the colouring which would give life to the linear woodcuts. This artist he identified on stylistic grounds with the miniaturist Liberale da Verona, whose paintings are to be seen in the large choir-books in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedra and elsewhere' [Barr p. 90].