V. Changing the concept of illustration

Gabriel Faernus. Centum fabulae. Anvers: Christophe Plantin, 1567 and 1573 editions. In-16.

Very popular to the end of the eighteenth century, the ancient moralising fables revisited by the Italian Neo-Latin poet Gabriel Faernus (d. 1561) were published four times by Christophe Plantin. No copy has been found from the first edition (1566). The following (1567) and the third (1573) enjoyed popularity, reinforced no doubt by the 100 woodcuts executed by Arnold Nicolai (active from about 1554) and by Gerard Janssen van Kampen (active from 1560 to 1592), after the drawings of Peeter van der Borcht (c. 1535-1608), who worked regularly with the Plantin firm. The last edition, produced in Leiden but with an Antwerp address (1585), was in the same format as its predecessors: these elegant small works, copiously illustrated, seemed to target not just students completing their classical studies.

Cultura Fonds: NC 1050 (1567)

Cultura Fonds: NC 1051 (1573)