Beschrijving
Amsterdam, François Halma, 1704, 4to., full leather binding with ribbed and gold tooled spine, sprinkled edges, [32]+198+[12] pp., somewhat worn copy with cracked front hinge, some tears in the paper, also in an engraved portrait (which has been repaired with paper tape), and some staining. Engraved titlepage (P. Boutats fec.), printer's mark on titlepage (In hoc signo), with a printed dedication to Queen Amelia accompanied by an engraved headpiece depicting the royal heraldic crests, with beautiful decorative initials and head pieces, a fold out engraving portraying David van Hoogstraten (A. Boomen pinxit, P. van Gunst sculpsit, F. Halma excudit) and 107 medallion plates engraved by J. van Vianen, a student of the great artist Romeyn de Hooghe. The medallion engravings depict scenes from the fables. The illustrations are classical in style and show many animals, gods and classicly dressed figures. In some instances nude or scarcely dressed figures have been coloured in to censure the nudity.
Phaedrus was a Roman slave that served under the reign of Emperor Augustus (1st century AD). He used parts of the Aesopian fables as inspiration for his stories. When put into context the fables can be seen as political indictment against the current regime that he was under. The remarks on Phaedrus' fables are written by David van Hoogstraten (1658-1724) who published a number of works in the field of Dutch linguistics. His oeuvre contains subjects like the gender of Dutch words (1700) and the Latin-Dutch dictionary (1704).
With signatures from several owners: Ig. van Bavegem, A. de Portemont (?), Paul Gaemers, Jelle Kaspersma & Alie Vinke (2018).
