216 - [SADELER, Egidius. TRICHET DU FRESNE]. EMBLEMATA.

[SADELER, Egidius. TRICHET DU FRESNE]. EMBLEMATA. Various illustrations drawn from the fables of Aesop and others, with explanations by R.D.F. Paris, (Cramoisy), 1659. Small quarto, (4)-279-(1) pp. Fine, finely grained fawn calfskin of the period, decorated ribbed spine, red morocco title label, gilt title, red edges (binding rubbed with losses on the spine and headbands, rubbed corners, stains or slight lateral water damage on the first and last quires, slight water damage on the edges; the last illustration appears to have been redacted by an old copy pasted over it; stains on pp.; an attempt to uncover the engraving beneath the paper on p. 255; ink stain on p. 273; some engravings redacted by another, sometimes similar, old engraving pasted over them). Description: Rare original French edition of Aesop’s Fables illustrated by the painter and engraver Egidius Sadeler. Contains 139 beautiful black etchings. Based on two collections of fables by Gheeraerts (from 1567 and 1578), fifteen of which, however, are Sadeler’s own inventions, whose figures influenced “Aesopian” works and bestiaries of fables in France. Our copy features a sort of old redaction, with prints of the engravings by the same artist on what appears to be old, fine, gray-toned laid paper mounted over approximately one-third of the figures. With the beautiful frontispiece title page featuring animals, engraved and signed by Aegidius Sadeler. Raphaël Trichet du Fresne (1611–1661) a scholar and bibliophile from Bordeaux, served as curator of Queen Christina of Sweden’s library and produced this collection based on the anonymous German fable book *Theatrum morum Artliche gesprach der thier*, in which Sadeler’s illustrations first appeared in 1608. Provenance: a copy belonging to Alexandre-Grégoire de Vichet (1731–1799), a jurist and administrator of Languedoc and Montpellier, with his ex libris engraved with his coat of arms on the inside front cover.