Aesop, and Sebastian Brant | "No legas"

Aesop, and Sebastian Brant

Appologi sive Mythologi cum quibusdam Carminum et Fabularum additionibus Sebastiani Brant. Basel: Jacob Wolff of Pforzheim, 1501

2 parts in 1 vol, folio (296 x 205 mm). Large woodcut portrait of Aesop on the verso of a1 in part one, smaller woodcut portrait of Sebastian Brant on the verso of A1 in part two, with a total of 334 woodcuts including the portraits (194 in part one, 141 in part two), nice wide margins, retaining one of the two blank leaves; expert restoration throughout occasionally costing a few letters and affecting woodcuts, several leaves remargined including A1 in part two, numerous passages and woodcuts defaced (as usual) and annotated "no legas," final blank M6 lacking, C4 in part two with a small hole at the center affecting woodcut. In full black straight-grained morocco, spine with raised bands in 6 compartments, second compartment lettered in gilt, others with repeat gilt motif, boards ruled in gilt, inside dentelles gilt, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers.

A handsome copy of this early illustrated edition of Aesop's Fables, augmented and edited by Sebastian Brant and the first edition to include his additional 140 sections.

The plan of this edition was conceived by Sebastian Brant. The first part of the book is based on Johann Zainer’s first illustrated edition of 1476-77, translated into Latin by Heinrich Steinhöwel. Brant expands the work, polishes the language and includes his commentaries to these fables. These 140 new chapters follow the same structure as the first section, with a woodcut followed by verse and then prose, as originally compiled by the German medic and humanist Heinrich Steinhöwel for the ca. 1476 Ulm edition of Aesop (Steinhöwel was instrumental in Johann Zainer's decision to set up a press in Ulm). The Ulm edition was in both Latin and German, presumably to appeal to a wider audience, but for this edition Brant uses only Latin, the language of humanism (he polishes some of Steinhöwel's phrasing and moderates the coarser or more salacious passages; the book was, after all, dedicated to his son), and expands the collection well beyond Aesop's animal fables. These compositions are taken from the works of Stace, Juvenal, Virgil, Ovid, Lucien, and others. The first story, taken from Hesiod, is said to be the oldest known fable. 

The numerous woodcuts in this volume fall into two distinct categories. The woodcuts in the first part (with a few exceptions) are rather simplistic and naïve in execution and are based (in reverse) on the woodcuts from Zainer's successful Ulm edition of ca. 1476 (incidentally the first illustrated edition of Aesop); the actual blocks were first used in Wolff's edition of not after 1489 (Goff A115). The woodcuts of the second part are more sophisticated, with the use of hatching and perspective to enliven the images, and they were cut specifically for this edition; is it thought they were produced by the workshop of Johann Grüninger in Strassburg. 

Certain passages of this work were deemed obscene shortly after publication and, as a consequence, most known copies have a few sections defaced. The present copy is no different, with a number of passages and illustrations crossed out or otherwise annotated “no legas” (“do not read”). 

Rare: Only three other copies of this work have appeared at auction in the past 30 years. The flaws of the present copy notwithstanding, this is a very attractive copy of an uncommon work.

REFERENCE:

Adams A291; Fairfax Murray, German 20; IA 100.931; VD16 A435

PROVENANCE:

Forum Auctions London, 14 July 2016, lot 214 (undesignated consignor) — Forum Auctions London, 10 July 2017, lot 167 (undesignated consignor)