1692 1st Edition , Earliest Substantial English Æsop
FABLES OF AESOP
and Other Eminent Mythologists: With Morals and Reflections
By Sir Roger L'Estrange
Author Bio: Sir Roger L'Estrange (17 December 1616 – 11 December 1704) was an English pamphleteer, author, courtier, and press censor. Throughout his life L'Estrange was frequently mired in controversy and acted as a staunch ideological defender of King Charles II's regime during the Restoration era. His works played a key role in the emergence of a distinct 'Tory' bloc during the Exclusion Crisis of 1679-81. Perhaps his best known polemical pamphlet was An Account of the Growth of Knavery, which ruthlessly attacked the parliamentary opposition to Charles II and his successor James, Duke of York (later King James II), placing them as fanatics who misused contemporary popular anti-Catholic sentiment to attack the Restoration court and the existing social order in order to pursue their own political ends.
The Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the collapse of the Restoration political order heralded the end of L'Estrange's career in public life, although his greatest translation work, that of Aesop's Fables, saw publication in 1692.
Synopsis: The landmark first edition of Sir Roger L’Estrange’s influential English Æsop — one of the earliest and most substantial renderings of the fables into the English tongue, and a foundational text in the tradition of moral literature and children’s instruction, long prior to La Fontaine’s dominance in the Anglophone world.
L’Estrange’s translation is expansive, drawing not only upon Æsop but also Anianus, Abstemius, and other fabulists; each fable followed by a Moral and an extended Reflexion, offering philosophical and political interpretation in the spirited Restoration manner of its author — a vigorous royalist polemicist and Master of the Press under Charles II.
A key work in the English moral tradition; highly influential for later fabulists and early education.
Format: Hardcover, folio (fo 12 × 19 305 × 483)
Note: Format/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary.
Collation: Title, preface pp. 1–9, engraved plate (Æsop “UTILE DULCI”), main text pp. 1–480, Alphabetical Table (7pp), Errata (1p), plus blanks/endpapers as present.
Language: English
Published By: R. Sare, T. Sawbridge, B. Took, M. Gillyflower, A. & J. Churchill and J. Hindmarsh, London
Condition Report:
Dust Jacket: No Jacket, Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Good - Format: Folio. 33.5 × 21 × 4.5 cm(approx.).
Plates: 1 engraved plate present (Æsop surrounded by animals) engraver uncredited — as issued. . Portrait frontispiece: [lacking].
Condition: Period calf boards, worn and rubbed; joints tender with evidence of early reinforcement; expected age-related toning and foxing; occasional light marginal soiling; edges untrimmed and pleasingly rough-cut; hinge/joint weakness, wear, any repairs, staining, etc. Tear on pages 333/334 (minor text impact on pp 334).
Portrait of L’Estrange by Roger White after Kneller not present in this copy (not called-for in all states of the first edition; variant issue without portrait).
A solid, complete and unsophisticated copy.
No significant loss or intrusive staining; early hand-inked marginalia to a few leaves; minor worming to inner margin of preliminary leaves (not affecting text).
A very good, genuine 17th-century example of this foundational Æsop.
Wing A706
ESTC R61122.
Note: Format/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary. Please see photos as part of condition report
SKU: BTETM0001543
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 3Kg
Tracked Shipping, Insurance Coverage as per Customer Request
1692 1st Edition , Earliest Substantial English Æsop
FABLES OF AESOP
and Other Eminent Mythologists: With Morals and Reflections
By Sir Roger L'Estrange
Author Bio: Sir Roger L'Estrange (17 December 1616 – 11 December 1704) was an English pamphleteer, author, courtier, and press censor. Throughout his life L'Estrange was frequently mired in controversy and acted as a staunch ideological defender of King Charles II's regime during the Restoration era. His works played a key role in the emergence of a distinct 'Tory' bloc during the Exclusion Crisis of 1679-81. Perhaps his best known polemical pamphlet was An Account of the Growth of Knavery, which ruthlessly attacked the parliamentary opposition to Charles II and his successor James, Duke of York (later King James II), placing them as fanatics who misused contemporary popular anti-Catholic sentiment to attack the Restoration court and the existing social order in order to pursue their own political ends.
The Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the collapse of the Restoration political order heralded the end of L'Estrange's career in public life, although his greatest translation work, that of Aesop's Fables, saw publication in 1692.
Synopsis: The landmark first edition of Sir Roger L’Estrange’s influential English Æsop — one of the earliest and most substantial renderings of the fables into the English tongue, and a foundational text in the tradition of moral literature and children’s instruction, long prior to La Fontaine’s dominance in the Anglophone world.
L’Estrange’s translation is expansive, drawing not only upon Æsop but also Anianus, Abstemius, and other fabulists; each fable followed by a Moral and an extended Reflexion, offering philosophical and political interpretation in the spirited Restoration manner of its author — a vigorous royalist polemicist and Master of the Press under Charles II.
A key work in the English moral tradition; highly influential for later fabulists and early education.
Format: Hardcover, folio (fo 12 × 19 305 × 483)
Note: Format/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary.
Collation: Title, preface pp. 1–9, engraved plate (Æsop “UTILE DULCI”), main text pp. 1–480, Alphabetical Table (7pp), Errata (1p), plus blanks/endpapers as present.
Language: English
Published By: R. Sare, T. Sawbridge, B. Took, M. Gillyflower, A. & J. Churchill and J. Hindmarsh, London
Condition Report:
Dust Jacket: No Jacket, Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Good - Format: Folio. 33.5 × 21 × 4.5 cm(approx.).
Plates: 1 engraved plate present (Æsop surrounded by animals) engraver uncredited — as issued. . Portrait frontispiece: [lacking].
Condition: Period calf boards, worn and rubbed; joints tender with evidence of early reinforcement; expected age-related toning and foxing; occasional light marginal soiling; edges untrimmed and pleasingly rough-cut; hinge/joint weakness, wear, any repairs, staining, etc. Tear on pages 333/334 (minor text impact on pp 334).
Portrait of L’Estrange by Roger White after Kneller not present in this copy (not called-for in all states of the first edition; variant issue without portrait).
A solid, complete and unsophisticated copy.
No significant loss or intrusive staining; early hand-inked marginalia to a few leaves; minor worming to inner margin of preliminary leaves (not affecting text).
A very good, genuine 17th-century example of this foundational Æsop.
Wing A706
ESTC R61122.
Note: Format/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary. Please see photos as part of condition report
SKU: BTETM0001543
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: 12.5, L: 30, W: 25 (Units: cm), W: 3Kg
Tracked Shipping, Insurance Coverage as per Customer Request
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