Vita di Esopo frigio ... Alquale di nuovo sono aggiunte le Favole del medesimo Esopo, con molte altre d'alcuni elevati ingegni ... Hora in gratia della studiosa gioventù illustrate. Venice and Bassano: Gio. Antonio Remondini, [ca. 1680-1700].
12mo (134 x 67 mm). Collation: A-R12. 394, [14] pp. 2 parts, separately titled, second title-page on F5r. Woodcut printer’s device on titles, 120 text woodcuts, a very few repeated. A few cuts with black dots (e.g., on p. 257), apparently from wormed blocks. Fol. K12 with short closed tear touching a woodcut, a few headlines shaved; some light discoloration. Late 18th-century English green calf, covers with gilt intertwining feather and pointillé border, smooth spine gold-paneled and tooled with 3 different all-over patterns, red calf lettering piece, gilt edges, marbled endleaves (worn: spine cracked, headcaps gone). Provenance: a member of the Fletcher family: engraved armorial bookplate, two gryphons as supporters, motto “Dieu pour nous,” the shield described by Burke as “sable, a cross flory argent between four escallops. Crest a bloodhound azure, ducally gorged or.”***
An illustrated pocket edition of 400 fables from Aesop and other traditions, specifically intended for children, preceded by Giulio Landi’s life of the semi-mythic fabulist. The charming, simple but decisively cut woodcut illustrations are typical of the early productions of the Remondini firm, who used the blocks as well in several Latin editions of the fables.
Giovanni Antonio Remondini (1634-1711), an enterprising businessman whose earliest commercial successes were in wool production, was the founder of the long-lived Bassano print publishing firm, later known for its paper production. Specialized at first in the production of popular prints, mainly engravings, the firm’s typographic activities were circumscribed until the mid-18th century by the Venetian monopoly of book production; thus the Remondinis’ earlier typographical output was limited to popular chapbooks and devotional works for a local readership, usually in small formats, and often illustrated with quickly but skillfully cut woodcuts, as here.
This undated edition corresponds with the below-cited ICCU record in its pagination and fingerprints, but several mispaginations described in ICCU were here corrected. The ICCU editors note two variants, one with the place of publication given as Bassano only, and this state or issue, with imprint “In Venetia, et in Bassano,” dubbed variant B. OCLC locates 4 copies in N. America. ICCU ITICCULO1E04628; cf. M. Infelise, I Remondini di Bassano (1980), pp. 23-33 and 132-3. Item #4112
Price: $750.00