Fables. Par L. A. Bourguin . . . . Troisieme edition, illustree

Paris: Cosson & co (Paris), for Elie Gauguet, 1860 In 12s and 6s (184 x 118 mm untrimmed): Pp [i-iv] [1] 2-296. Title within a fine wood-engraved architectural border incorporating birds, grapes, a serpent, and a fox, its base lettered 'Esope La Fontaine Phedre', after Louis Browne by I. Bichon(?). Six wood-engraved plates signed with monogram BJL (3) or unsigned (3), by I. Bichon(?) (4) or unsigned (2). Publisher's printed blue wrappers (the upper wrapper reproducing the titlepage, advertisements on the lower wrapper, spine priced 3 francs), plain tissue pastedowns. Partly unopened, sellotape on spine, withal a very good copy. *** THIRD EDITION, ENLARGED, and the earliest edition known in America; comprising 150 FABLES IN FRENCH VERSE, arranged in six books of twenty-five fables each; together with a general prologue, special prologues for books iii and v, and general epilogue, all in verse. An alphabetical index at the end distinguishes Bourguin's original fables -- of which there are fifty-nine -- from his translations and adaptations. The latter suggest that Bourguin had, or had access to, a remarkable library including fables by Abstemius, Aesop, Avianus, Babrius, Bertola, Burger, Clasio, Confucius, Desbillons, Descartes, Dodsley, Dutremblay, Gay, Gellert, Gleim, Goethe, Grillo, Herder, Horace, Iriarte, Leibnitz, Lessing, Lichtwer, Luqman, Nicolai, Pfeffel, Phaedrus, Plato, Plautus, Roberti, Sadi, Schiller, Socrates, Theocritus, and Wildamow. The first and second editions of this work appeared at Paris in 1842 (140 pages twelvemo) and 1856 (199 pages twelvemo); and a fifth edition appeared at Paris in 1878 (216 pages). *** This is A PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED by the publisher 'A Monsieur Rennes[s]on[?] Hommage respectueux de l'editeur Elie Gauguet' on the upper wrapper verso. (This was perhaps the minor poet L. Rennesson [fl. 1882-1908], who was apparently also an Ardennais.) *** The author lived in Ardennes, in northeastern France; and he was a member of the philotechnic society of the Académie de Reims (Marne). Like Anders Lidbeck in Sweden, Bourguin was both a magistrate and a naturalist, and would thus have had both a professional interest in moral literature and an inclination to see moral lessons in animal behavior. In addition to his Fables, Bourguin published at least twenty-seven editions of Monsieur Lesage; ou, Entretiens d'un instituteur avec ses eleves sur les animaux utiles et sur l'hygiene 1862 &c; at least twenty editions of a Petit livre de morale en preceptes et en exemples 1866 &c; papers and monographs on birds and the protection of animals; an elementary textbook on the animal kingdom; and a manual of Grosselin's system of sign-language (called 'phonomimie') for deaf-mutes. *** RARE: Only one other copy has been located. Bourguin was UNKNOWN TO LA BEDOLLIERE. -- References: (None. Not in OCLC, nor in the French union catalogues except at BN.) -- Copies: Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris). .