Reineke fuchs [Le roman de Renard]

First edition illustrated with 36 steel engravings outside the text by Wilhelm Von Kaulbach, including 17 engraved by Rudolfe Rahn, 17 by Adrian Scheich, one by Steifendand and one last unsigned. One engraved half-title. Text within a border. Gothic typeface. Head- and tailpieces. Not only do the engravings approach perfection, but Kaulbach's animal compositions are among the finest of their kind. The human personification of the animals is indeed highly developed and perfectly staged, one must see the incredible orgy on page 125, the most complete scene of debauchery where intoxication, gluttony and eroticism seize upon the most diverse animals.
Spectacular publisher's binding in full glazed pink calf. Spine decorated with a large plate of interlaced ornaments. Large plate on the upper cover with Renard in armor at the center, conducted on a chariot drawn by griffons and multiple ornaments. White watered endpapers. On the lower cover, a central blind medallion and a wide border with learned interlaced ornamental compositions, in imitation of the first cover. Spine sunned, uniformly lightened. A thin split in the leather at the upper joint at the head extending 0.5cm; the leather is also very narrowly split at the lower joint at the foot extending 3 cm. Traces of rubbing on the edges. Scattered foxing on particularly white paper. This foxing is often concentrated at the location of the tissue guards which remain present. Despite the defects, a very handsome copy.
Goethe wrote his own version of the romance of Reynard in 1794, a collection of medieval texts featuring Reynard the Fox. The term Renard which became established indeed comes from Reineke.