A Very Rare Plantin Aesop in a Delicate Boyet Binding from the Libraries of Cisternay Du Fay and Count Hoym

Aesop. Fabulae Graece et Latine, cum aliis quibusdam opusculis. Together with additional Greek and Latin texts including Gabria Graecus, Batrachomyomachia, Musaeus, Agapetus Diaconus, and Galeomyomachia. Antwerp, Christophe Plantin, 1567.

A remarkably rare and complete Plantin edition of Aesop and associated Greek texts, preserved in an elegant early eighteenth-century morocco binding attributed to the celebrated Parisian court binder Luc-Antoine Boyet. The volume comes from some of the most distinguished bibliophilic collections of Europe, including Cisternay Du Fay, Count Hoym, Mortimer L. Schiff, and André Langlois.

Edition & Bibliographic Information

Three parts bound in one volume.
a–g8; A–I8; A–I8 = 112 pp.; 142 pp., 1 index leaf; 142 pp., 1 blank leaf. The first two parts printed entirely in double columns, the third partly in double columns.

The first two parts contain Plantin woodcut printer’s devices. Duodecimo (111 × 66 mm).

Although Aesop remained among the most widely read classical authors of early modern Europe, this particular Plantin edition is surprisingly rare, especially complete with all three parts. Leon Voet recorded only four complete copies in his bibliography of the Plantin Press.

The third section, containing additional Greek texts and translations, was issued without any printer’s name and was not included in all surviving copies. The present volume is therefore a particularly desirable example of this celebrated “belle édition.”

Physical Description & Binding

Early eighteenth-century olive-brown morocco binding over four raised bands decorated in gilt. Spine compartments framed with dotted and gilt fillets and filled with a semé of gilt volutes; covers within triple gilt fillet borders with floral corner tools and central armorial supralibros. Gilt board edges and turn-ins, marbled endleaves, and richly gilt marbled edges. Preserved in a modern linen chemise signed by James MacDonald, New York, and housed in a brown half morocco slipcase.

The binding is attributed to Luc-Antoine Boyet (c. 1658–1733), one of the most refined and sought-after Parisian binders of the Louis XIV and Régence periods. Its restrained elegance transforms what began as a compact Greek-Latin reading text into a highly sophisticated bibliophilic object.

A Humanist Schoolbook Elevated into a Collector’s Object

The volume exemplifies a remarkable transformation in the history of collecting. Originally printed as a learned educational text — combining Aesop with additional Greek moral, poetic, and satirical works — the book later entered the aristocratic world of eighteenth-century French bibliophily, where condition, rarity, provenance, and binding became inseparable from textual value itself.

The probable earliest owner, “Ph. Schoÿte,” belonged to a prominent Antwerp patrician family and likely acquired the book locally shortly after publication. By 1725 it had entered the legendary collection of Cisternay Du Fay, one of the most admired private libraries of the period.

Count Hoym and the Great Parisian Libraries

The armorial supralibros on the covers identifies the later owner as Carl Heinrich Graf von Hoym (1694–1736), among the most ambitious and sophisticated book collectors of the eighteenth century. Appointed Polish and Saxon ambassador to the French court in 1720, Hoym assembled a library celebrated throughout Europe for the beauty of its bindings and the refinement of its selections.

Contemporaries described the Hoym library as unequalled in belles-lettres, history, and binding quality. The present volume fits perfectly within that milieu: a rare classical text in immaculate condition enclosed within a refined Parisian morocco binding.

Hoym’s story ended tragically. Recalled to Dresden in 1729 amid court intrigues, he was imprisoned and eventually committed suicide in 1736 at Königstein Fortress. His magnificent Paris library was auctioned in 1738. While Hoym provenance was not yet particularly valued at the time, nineteenth- and twentieth-century bibliophiles increasingly regarded his books as among the finest examples of aristocratic French collecting.

Provenance

Contemporary ownership inscription “Ph. Schoÿte” of the Antwerp patrician family.
C. H. de Cisternay Du Fay, sale 1725, lot 2131.
Armorial supralibros of Carl Heinrich Graf von Hoym; Paris sale 1738, lot 2552.
Bookplates of Mortimer L. Schiff and André Langlois.

Literature

Adams A 288 (first two parts only); BM STC Dutch 2; Brunet I, 85–86; De Bure, Belles-Lettres II, 12–13, no. 3572; Ebert 219; Graesse I, 32; Landwehr 1988, F008; Schweiger I, 13; Voet, The Plantin Press, no. 15A I–III.
For Hoym: ADB 13, 218–219; Bogeng I, 132ff.; Guigard II, 260f.; Olivier 672.

For a fuller scholarly description and illustrations, see Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, lot 90:
Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, Volume II