A Closer Look at the Making of Barlow’s <i>Aesop’s Fables</i>

Francis Barlow’s edition of Aesop’s Fables, first published in 1666, exists in a number of post-1687 “mixed” issues that combine sheets from the 1666 first edition with those from the 1687 second edition. The seemingly ad hoc composition of those mixed issues was last addressed by Philip Hofer in 1948. The present piece aims to delve further into these issues by analyzing four Morgan Library copies (two of the 1666 edition, a mixed-issue “1687” copy, and a 1703 one), focusing on a characteristic that was unknown to Hofer—the existence of two states of etched lettering in the English text of 1666, which allows us to reconstruct the process of making the book. Doing so brings to light Barlow’s decision to use the later printed, and thus more “perfect,” second-state sheets in the initial 1666 run, while reserving the “defective” earliest sheets for the much later “mixed-issue” copies he put together between 1687 and 1703. An appendix offers evidence that the plates were printed face-up, as is typical of intaglio printing, rather than face-down, as is often suggested for combining intaglio plates with letterpress text.