Descripción:
Paris, Richard Breton, 1565.8vo [160 x 98 mm] of (63) ll., 18th century French polished calf, red edges, arms Sir Charles Bagot on covers, morocco slipcase.
The first edition of this mysterious series of grotesque illustrations "for the recreation of witty spirits."
The woodcuts are now generally attributed to François Desprez who three years prior provided similar illustrations for different work printed by Breton. While Rabelais is invoked in the title, his name seems to have simply served to advertise the nature of the work - providing a shorthand for a playful, Pantagruelist posture. Some of the iconography can clearly be related to images by Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Breughel, coming from a longer tradition of absurd and entertaining images which had only somewhat recently been made literary by the work of Rabelais. Much ink has flowed on the potential hidden meanings in these cuts, published in an age when esoteric symbolism was very much in vogue (cf. Cesare Ripas Iconologia and… Leer más