[Jean de LA FONTAINE]. Contes et nouvelles en vers. De Monsieur de La Fontaine. Nouvelle édition enrichie de tailles-douces. À Amsterdam | Chez Henry Desbordes, MDCLXXXV [1685]. — 2 vol. in 1.

Pagination: [1] – frontispiece with pasted illustr., [*1] – title p. with blank verso, *2-*5 (only recto numbered) – advertisement, [1] – preface vol. 1, [2] table, 1-236; [6] – preface vol. 2, 1-216, illustr. (in text).

Etched frontispiece plate and 58 half-page etchings at the head of each chapter as well as endpiece vignettes, all by R. de Hooge (Romeyn de Hooghe, 1645 – 1708, a Dutch painter, sculptor, engraver and caricaturist.

First illustrated edition. “Publication of the scandalous fables was forbidden in France from 1674. According to Van Eeghen, this edition was published without the knowledge of La Fontaine. …This is the edition with ‘Le Juge de Nêle’ (instead of Mesle) in the contents of the first volume, as well as page 211 for ‘Dissertation sur la Joconde’; 16 lines of text on page 211; and 19 lines of text on the first page of the preface of volume 2″ [1].

Pott 8vo (15.4 x 10 cm), hardcover; owner’s later tan polished half-calf, marbled boards, marbled pastedowns and flyleaves, 5 raised bands, dark brown labels with gilt lettering and gilt roll patterns on spine, tail of the spine slightly damaged. Corners bumped, spotted stains on leather.

Henri Desbordes (d. ca. 1722) was a Huguenot printer who was exiled from his business in France and set up as a publisher in Amsterdam in the 17th century.