Peter Bichsel   Fine Books

BEWICK. – Le Grand (d’Aussy, Pierre Jean-Baptiste). Fabliaux or Tales, Abridged from French Manuscripts of the XIIth and XIIIth centuries, Selected and Translated into English Verse by G. L. Way. With a Preface, Notes, and Appendix by the late G. Ellis. A new edition corrected. 3 vols.

With 52 woodcut vignettes in the text by John and Thomas Bewick, Charlton Nesbit, and Luke Clennell. XLI, (3), 223 pp.; 272 pp.; 304 pp. 8vo. 19th-century green morocco over 5 raised bands. Spine gilt with cerf vignette. Boards with outer and inner gilt fillets. Top edge gilt. Partly unopened. – London, J. Rodwell, 1815.

First illustrated and annotated edition of this collection of French fabliaux, translated and versificated ty G. L. Way. Way’s version has first been published between 1796 and 1800 in 2 vols. without notes and preface, while the French original version was first published in 1779. The fine woodcuts accompanying the tales are of the best done by the famous Bewick brothers. Nice copy in an English master binding from the library of Robert Thompson with his armorial ex-libris on the paste-downs of all 3 vols. – Brunet III, 947. – Occasional minor foxing, otherwise a fine copy in an superb binding. – Best.-Nr. 6942