![Aesopi Phrygia, Fabulae.. 1628 [Early 17th century tooled binding]](https://www.roeandmoore.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/60004404.jpg)
£1,800.00
16mo Small book bound in full leather in a contemporary tooled binding and spine with plain end papers. All fore-edges are gilt. With bookplate illustrating the coat of arms of William Clavering Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper. [1709-1764] pasted on the back of the front board, followed by on the first blank endpaper, hand written in ink ‘Memorandum Mr. Foulks -how to signe how agree att’all untill ye plates be delivered ..payd or bills on the security for shall summon, ye 1st of Febry 1699 Leicester. Arrhabon see ye D.’ Written by Robert Sydney Fourth Earl of Leicester. [1649-1705]. On the following blank page in ink is written ‘at Leicester house in yr month of the December 15th 1699. ‘ plus other script in Latin written vertically the page. Plus the Title page with a woodcut device showing a portrait of Aesop [? ]
410 pages with Greek and Latin text in parallel columns with six pages of index. Collated and complete. Illustrated with numerous small wood cuts. The front board has been sympathetically reattached and the head and bottom of the spine strengthen. Corners have light wear. The text is generally clean with some pages showing signs of rubbing and poor printing. The text has been badly trimmed by the binder to the point where there is a little loss. Still a beautiful little book with a lovely binding.
Size 112 x 68mm [4.5 x 2.75 Inches)
Notes:
The first owner of this book was probably the Second Earl of Leicester [1595-1677] who was a bibliophile collecting over 4800 books at his house in Penhurst. The binding would have been commission by Robert Sydney, the Second Earl of Leicester. Books were issued in boards to be bound at the owners expense. His collection was inherited by several generations of the family, later sold by the Seventh Earl in 1743 to London Bookseller Thomas Osborne who dispersed the library via a series of sales.
The Fourth of Earl of Leicester, Robert Sydney [1649-1705], would have inherited this book through is family and referring to the ‘Memorandum Mr. Foulks’ may have been a reference to the Mr Foulks, a colonel John Folkes. Colonel John Foulks died during the costly Jamaican expedition in 1692. In 1699 a memorandum was drawn up by a crown auditor to settle clearing costs, back pay, and transport allowances for the regiment’s officers and disbanded soldiers.
William Clavering-Cowper, to whom the book plate belong to, was the 2nd Earl Cowper [1709-1764] who was an English peer and courtier. Born William Cowper, he was the eldest son of William Cowper, 1st Earl Cowper and his second wife Mary.
This is One of the many Aesop editions based on the famous first illustrated edition by Jean de Tournes, Lyon 1571, which was a landmark in humanistic scholarship and printing with woodcuts by Bernard Salomon (Bodemann 29.1). The De Tournes family moved to Geneva in 1585 to escape religious persecution as Hugenots. In 1619 Jean de Tournes III sold his house in Lyon to the printer Guichard Juliéron, who probably issued the present edition in Lyon under the name of Jean de Tournes
Publisher: Jean de Tournes
Date: 1628
Place: Geneva or Lyon
Book ID: 60004404
