[PHAEDRUS, (ed. Johanne Laurentio)]. Phaedri Augusti Caesaris liberti, Fabularum Aesopiarum Libri quinque, notis perpetuis illustrati & cum integris Aliorum observationibus in lucem editi a Johanne Laurentio jcto. Amstelodami : Apud Johannem Janssonium à Waesberge & viduam Elizei Weyerstraet, Anno M.D.C. LXVII [1667].
Hardcover. First Edition. Leather-bound. Octavo (195 x 120 mm), pp. [62], 462, [204 index]. Errors in pagination: 179 & 185 misnumbered 197 & 183. Signatures: *-4*⁸ A-2S⁸ 2T⁶. Early, but not contemporary stiff vellum. Smooth spine with gilt titles on morocco lettering-piece. Speckled page edges. Latin and Greek text. Commentary in double columns. Engraved additional pictorial title-page by Christian van der Hagen [signed "Chr: Hagens sculp"]. 99 half-page engravings throughout the text, many depicting scenes from contemporary life. Title-page ornamental device. Capital initials. Indices. Errata at end. Includes section "Libellus variarum lectionem ex observationibus eorum quorum notae ad Phaedri Fabulas accesserunt collectus": pages [401]-462.
Condition: GOOD. Binding tight and secure. Some marking to covers. There are cancellation plates to pages 133, 196 and 205. Lacking pages 275-286, removed due to censorship - Landwehr records that the ‘brothel scene’ on page 276 has often been defaced or removed, as is the case with this copy. Contents remarkably clean. Contemporary inked annotations to front endpaper. Scarce.
Notes: First Illustrated edition of Phaedrus to be published in the Netherlands. Phaedrus is recognized as the first writer to retell entire books of Aesop's Greek prose fables in Latin iambic meter. The work contains the text of the 92 Phaedrus fables (the first edition of 1596 had only 64 fables), with extensive notes added in small type in two columns at the end of each fable. With extensive indices and several laudatory poems, as well as a letter by Conrad von Rittershausen, the first to provide the Phaedrus fables with scholarly commentary. Beautifully illustrated with plates from original designs by an unknown artist. The frontispiece by Christian Hagen shows a Roman emperor in a classical architectural setting, offering a cap to Phaedrus who stands with an open book while Aesop stands aside, his book under his arm. The cancellation plates and censoring of the brothel scene are quite normal as recorded by a number of sources. [Landwehr, Emblem & Fable Books, F-143; STCN (9 copies); not in The Fox and the Grapes; Checklist Aesopic Fables Pierpont Morgan Library; Stevenson Hobbs, Fables; for Hagen: Thieme-Becker 15, p. 461; Wurzbach II, p. 632; Bodeman, Das illustrierte Fabelbuch, 75.1; Fabula Docet 68; Wurzbach II, p. 632; Brunet IV 588].
