Fables In?dites des XIIe, XIIIe et XIVe Siecles by Various and Jean de La Fontaine; notice by A. C. M. Robert - 1825

Paris - Etienne Cabin, 1825 Book. Very Good. Hardcover. First edition.. A scarce first edition of the Unpublished Fables of the XIIth, XIIIth and XIVth Centuries and The Fables of de la Fontaine. Preceded with a notice on the Fabulists by A. C. M. Robert to first volume and with illustrated half titles throughout and facsimile letters one of which folds out. First edition. In two volumes complete. In French. Jean de La Fontaine (1621 - 1695) was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional languages. According to Flaubert, he was the only French poet to understand and master the texture of the French language before Hugo. The Fables were originally issued in several volumes from 1668 to 1694. Divided into 12 books, there are 239 of the Fables, varying in length from a few lines to some hundred. The first collection of Fables Choisies appearedin 1668, dividing 124 fables into six books over its two volumes. By this time, La Fontaine was 47 and known to readers chiefly as the author of Contes, lively stories in verse, grazing and sometimes transgressing the bounds of contemporary moral standards. The Fables, in contrast, were completely in compliance with these standards. Eight new fables published in 1671 would eventually take their place in books 7-9 of the second collection. Books 7 and 8 appeared in 1678, while 9-11 appeared in 1679. Between 1682 and 1685 a few fables were published dealing with people in antiquity, such as 'The Matron of Ephesus' and 'Philemon and Baucis'. Then book 12, appeared as a separate volume in 1694, containing 29 fables. Condition: In mottled calf bindings. Externally, generally smart but with slight wear to extremities. Front joints cracked, rear joint to volume one starting. Internally, generally firmly bound. Bright but with scattered spotting and handling marks and the occasional slight tidemark. With a slight closed tear to half title to volume one. Overall: VERY GOOD.