Johanna Sibylla Küsel-Kraus (ca. 1650–1717); Maria Philippina Küsel (1676–c. 1705?); Maria Magdalena Küsel (active c. 1688–1702).

Aesop. Favole scelte / Außerlesene Fabeln / Fables choisies.

Augsburg, Johannes Jacob Lotter for Johann Ulrich Kraus, 1718.

4°. [IV], 106 pp. With 50 numbered plate leaves.

Modern marbled paper boards.

               A trilingual edition of Aesop's fables, with 98 etched illustrations on 50 plates. The full-page frontispiece is signed “Johaña Sib: Krausin eine gebohrne Küslin. Fecit.” (= Johanna Sibylla Küsel-Kraus). Although only this plate bears her signature, Johann Ulrich Kraus states in the foreword that all of the illustrations were executed by his wife, Johanna Sibylla. This explicit contemporary acknowledgement is particularly noteworthy, as female engravers rarely received such prominent recognition in early modern illustrated books.

However, many of the illustrations actually bear a monogram M, occasionally incorporating a P. This is unusual, as we have not encountered monograms on other prints securely attributable to Johanna Sibylla Küsel-Kraus. The marks therefore raise the possibility that some of these plates were executed by another member of the Küsel family workshop, perhaps her sisters Maria Philippina (MP) or Maria Magdalena (MM). If so, these monograms may offer a rare glimpse into the internal organisation of the Küsel-Kraus workshop and the division of labour among the women of the family. Johanna Sibylla's prominent acknowledgement in the foreword, contrasted with the appearance of these otherwise unexplained monograms, may hint at differing positions within the workshop hierarchy and at varying degrees of artistic responsibility, visibility, and recognition. Perhaps the matter will be resolved in the forthcoming New Hollstein volume, as this series is absent from the published old Hollstein volume on the Küsel family.

This fourth and final Küsel edition is a typical and substantial illustrated production from the mature period of the Küsel-Kraus workshop, documenting Johanna Sibylla Kraus’s central role within one of the most prolific engraving and publishing enterprises of Baroque Augsburg. Such commercially ambitious didactic publications formed the backbone of the business. The illustrations unite emblematic imagery with scenes of everyday life and contemporary occupational types, including farmers, hunters, vintners, bird-catchers, fishermen, cooks, physicians, and fortune-tellers.

Condition: Slight staining and thumbing to the frontispiece and occasionally on other leaves. Small tear in blank margin of the final plate leaf. Otherwise in good condition.

Reference: VD 18 10325492; Praz 331 (1707 edition); Brüggemann I, 6 (under Aesop); Fabula docet 66 (French edition). Not in Hollstein; Timm-Bodemann.