El Libro de las Fábulas: Recopilación de las más famosas fábulas de Samaniego, La Fontaine, Iriarte, Hartzembusch, etc.

Abstract

Here is the 1958 third edition of a book I had already in its second edition from 1943. The monochrome illustrations here are not orange, as there, but rather black. There are thirty-three fables here from several fabulists, including Samaniego, Iriarte, Hartzembusch, La Fontaine, Florian, and two fabulists new to me: Baeza and Clovis Eimeric. Each fable gets from one to three pages and two monochrome illustrations. The first illustration is a large quadrangle presenting a key moment in the fable, while the second is a frameless tailpiece, usually of one character in the story. The latter may show even more wit than the former, as when the tailpiece for The Lion and the Man shows a painter with his palette (17). Another fine tailpiece used twice shows the ass trumpeting and the hare delivering messages (26 and verso of the title-page). Do not overlook the fine first-illustration of Iriarte's naturalist scouring a book (15). Many fables that originate with La Fontaine are here given in the versions of Samaniego. There are no fables attributed to Aesop. I find it curious that Hartzembusch gets mentioned on the title-page but has only one fable here, while several fabulists like Eimeric and Florian have more than one fable and are not mentioned on the title-page. Is that the grasshopper (a vagrant with an umbrella and guitar) and the ant (a housewife with antennae) on the cover? There is a T of C at the end.