Beschreibung:

[KHEMNITSER, Ivan Ivanovich (1745-1784)]. Basni i skazki. [Fables and Stories]. St Petersburg: [I.K. Shnor], 1782. Rare second, enlarged edition of Khemnitser’s innovative fables, from the library of Prince S.M. Vorontsov. The first part includes the 33 fables of the 1779 edition, and the second adds another 35, inspired by the neo-classicism of La Fontaine, as well as the Aesopian and 18th-century European fabulistic tradition. Khemnitser’s stories ‘give something more than a foretaste of Krylov and are written in an admirable, vigorous, popular language’, some being ‘among the few 18th-century poems that have remained universally popular ever since’ (Mirskii). The St Petersburg library of Prince Semen Mikhailovich Vorontsov (1823-82) contained 12,000 volumes, mostly inherited from his grandfather. RBH records no other copies having been offered at auction. SK XVIII 7957, Sopikov 2126. Not in Smirnov-Sokol’skii, Moia biblioteka , Kilgour or Fekula. D.P. Mirskii, A History of Russian Literature , p. 49. Octavo (190 x 110mm). (First title dust-soiled, light marginal waterstaining, small ink splash to fore-edge of first quire, small oil stains to lower margin of last two leaves, edges softened, one lower outer blank corner minimally torn). Contemporary full sheep, single gilt ruled, with gilt urns and cornucopiae (joints, head and foot, and corners repaired, boards a bit rubbed). Provenance: library of Prince Semen Mikhailovich Vorontsov in St Petersburg (armorial bookplate on front pastedown) – modern casemark (front pastedown).