This book is titled “Fables of Aesop and Others, Translated into English. With Other Applications, and a Print before each Fable.” It was written by Samuel Croxall and is the fifteenth edition, published in London by T. Longman et al. 

The book is 3/4 bound, with gilt decorations and gilt lettering on the spine, marbled covers, blank endpapers, the name “T Walter” stamped on the page before the frontis, the frontis engraving shows someone in an allegorical setting writing on papers  - probably a representation of Aesop - then the title page, a four-page dedication to Lord Halifax dated May 1722 by Croxall, a fourteen-page Preface, a twelve-page Table of Contents, the text runs from page 4 to 329, followed by a seven-page Index, and there are small engravings with each fable and an instructive Application, which provides the moral of the story. The book is undated, but WorldCat says the fifteenth edition was published in 1797.  

Aesop was a slave and storyteller who apparently lived in Greece between 620 and 560 BCE, and the fables associated with his name have descended to modern times in many languages through a variety of sources. The first edition of Aesop’s Fables in English was published by William Caxton in 1482, although Heinrich Steinhowel is credited with publishing the first comprehensive edition of Aesop in his Esopus of 1496. 

Samuel Croxall (1688/1689 - 1752) was born at Walton on Thames and educated at Eton and St. John’s  College in Cambridge, and was an Anglican churchman, writer, and translator noted for his edition of Aesop’s Fables. Croxall’s first edition was published in 1722 and the fifteenth edition was published in 1797, so Croxall made his mark with these translations, and his translations are still being published today. 

The book measures 6 3/4 x 4 1/4 inches wide and is in very good condition for its age. It has a tight binding, with light rubbing on the edges of the spine and at the corners, scattered brown spots in the text, and the last five pages of the Index have heavy brown spots, but are still readable, and there aren’t many copies of Croxall’s early editions. We found only two copies online printed before 1793 and two copies of the fifteenth edition, but most of the translations were done after 1798 and well into the 1800’s. 

Size: 6 3/4 x 4 1/4 in. 

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