Author: Phaedrus; David van Hoogstraten
Title: Ezopische fabelen van Fedrus, gevryden slaef des keizers Augustus. In Nederduitsch dicht vertaelt en met aenmerkingen verrykt. Amsterdam, François Halma, 1703 (changed to 1704 with red ink).
Description: Leather hardcover with gilt stamped spine. The board edges decorated with a gilded pattern. The spine and board edges are slightly worn. The pages show light finger smudges. The book is in good condition. 19,5 x 26 cm, [36] 1-198 [10] pp. Engraved title page by P. Boutats after J. Goeree with a medallion of the portrait of Princess Amalia van Nassau. The portrait of the translator, David van Hoogstraten, is engraved on a folded plate by P. van Gunst en A. Boonen. Besides these portraits the book contains 9 vignettes, 9 decorated initials and 107 medallion plates engraved by J. van Vianen, who was a student of the great artist Romeyn de Hooghe. As the title describes Phaedrus was a Roman slave that served under the reign of Emperor Augustus (1st century AD). He used parts of the Aesopian fables as inspiration for his stories. When put into context the fables can be seen as political indictment against the current regime that he was under. The remarks on Phaedrus' fables are written by David van Hoogstraten (1658-1724) who published a number of works in the field of Dutch linguistics. His oeuvre contains subjects like the gender of Dutch words (1700) and the Latin-Dutch dictionary (1704).

Keywords: Fables|Literature|Literature & Philosophy