Russian Fables by A.I. Krylov with parallel translation into French and Italian by different authors.

A fresh example with wide margins of this edition comprising 86 original fables of the 'Russian Lafontaine' accompanied by the translations into Italian and French that were prepared by more than eighty litterateurs.

The original idea to publish a selection of Krylov's fables with translations into European languages belonged to Anna Ivanovna Orlova - the wife of the Privy Councillor, Count Grigoriy Vladimirovich Orlov. During her trip around Italy she collected translations of the Ivan Andreevich's fables by the most outstanding poets of the country. Later in the Orlovs' Paris salon Grigoriy Vladimirovich organised the preparation of the multilingual edition of the fables. The list of the French translators even included the name of the famous author of La Marseillaise, Rouget de Lisle.

This edition stands out with its superb typographical production. Francois Didot, one of Paris's best typographers, ordered Cyrillic type especially for this publication. Illustrations of the fables were engraved by Sh. Beye and Ken. According to Vereshchagin 'the book is rare', since most copies were sold in Paris following its publication and very few were actually brought to Russia.

2 vols; 8vo (20.9 x 13.4 cm); 5 engraved plates, occasional spotting and offsetting from plates; contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards, green morocco labels to spine, compartments gilt ruled; minor restoration to spines; half-title, titles in Russian and French, engraved frontispiece, LXI, 245, [3] pp.; half-title, titles in Russian and French, 378, [3] pp., a copy copy.

Fekula 4857 ('Rare' and illustrated; lacking a plate); Smirnov-Sok. 790; Vereshchagin 414.