Creighton University

Here is one of the loveliest and most curious finds from summer days in Europe in 2025.  3.75” x 6”.  About 340 pages.  It consists of five books of 30 numbered fables each, plus an appendix of three more fables.  The title-page advertises 150 woodcuts.  The page number “195” is inverted, and “299” comes out “929.”  Each fable is illustrated with a framed rectangular woodcut.  This book is not in Bodemann, and Neureuter does not appear there.  Meissner on the other hand did various kinds of editions.  Our book consists now of three sections.  A portion as originally bound in boards is in correct page order but with many gaps.  It stops at the title-page for the fifth book.  Two other portions are made up of separated loose pages, all with woodcuts on their right-hand page.  One group of these consists of 38 loose pages from various places in the book.  The other group consists of 15 loose pages with beautiful hand-colored illustrations.  I find these wonderfully done!  I presume somebody took the time to illustrate these pages, and somehow they have lasted 220 years!  I will list this book under both “books” and “separated pages.”