# Is "Histoires ou contes du temps passé (Perrault's fairy tales / Mother Goose)" by Charles Perrault a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Histoires ou contes du temps passé (Perrault's fairy tales / Mother Goose) by Charles Perrault (Claude Barbin, Paris, 1697) is identified by: Paris: Claude Barbin, January 1697; 12mo, eight prose tales. The Barbin Paris 1697 is the true first and the census claim is correct; the 1695 calligraphic manuscript (five tales) precedes it but is not an edition.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Paris: Claude Barbin, January 1697
- 12mo, eight prose tales
- The title page is anonymous — 'Histoires ou Contes du temps passé. Avec des Moralitez' over 'Avec Privilège de Sa Majesté' — and names no author
- Charles Perrault's name appears on no early title page
- The privilege, dated 28 October 1696, was granted to P. Darmancour, and the dedicatory epistle to 'Mademoiselle' (Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans) is signed P. Darmancour — Pierre Perrault Darmancour, Perrault's youngest son
- Each tale carries a copper engraving attributed to Antoine Clouzier; the frontispiece shows an old woman spinning and telling tales to three children by the fire, its cartouche lettered 'Contes de ma mère l'Oye' — the source of the Mother Goose name, which the BnF confirms appears both on the 1695 calligraphic manuscript and in the 1697 frontispiece cartouche
- Publisher imprint reads Claude Barbin, Paris

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Charles Perrault |
| Publisher | Claude Barbin, Paris |
| Year | 1697 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Paris: Claude Barbin, January 1697 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Paris: Claude Barbin, January 1697; 12mo, eight prose tales. The title page is anonymous — 'Histoires ou Contes du temps passé. Avec des Moralitez' over 'Avec Privilège de Sa Majesté' — and names no author; Charles Perrault's name appears on no early title page. The privilege, dated 28 October 1696, was granted to P. Darmancour, and the dedicatory epistle to 'Mademoiselle' (Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans) is signed P. Darmancour — Pierre Perrault Darmancour, Perrault's youngest son. Each tale carries a copper engraving attributed to Antoine Clouzier; the frontispiece shows an old woman spinning and telling tales to three children by the fire, its cartouche lettered 'Contes de ma mère l'Oye' — the source of the Mother Goose name, which the BnF confirms appears both on the 1695 calligraphic manuscript and in the 1697 frontispiece cartouche. Copies are separated by the 'fautes à corriger' (errata) leaf at the end; a second Barbin edition appeared later in 1697 with those errors corrected in the text, and a further resetting followed in 1707 as 'Contes de Monsieur Perrault. Avec des Moralitez', retaining the same illustrations. Very few copies of the 1697 original survive — the BnF's own copy (Rés p Y2 263) is recorded in mediocre condition.

## Is this the true first?
The Barbin Paris 1697 is the true first and the census claim is correct; the 1695 calligraphic manuscript (five tales) precedes it but is not an edition. An Amsterdam counterfeit from Jacques Desbordes appeared the same year, 1697, with Desbordes reprints following in 1708, 1721 and 1729 — and the 1721 Desbordes resetting reordered the tales, putting 'Le petit chaperon rouge' first where Barbin opened with 'La Belle au bois dormant'. That Desbordes order, not Barbin's, was followed by nearly every later 18th-century edition, so tale order is a usable early check. The first English edition is a separately collected book that belongs beside the French: Robert Samber's translation, 'Histories, or Tales of Past Times. Told by Mother Goose. With Morals. Written in French by M. Perrault, and Englished by G. M. Gent.', London: printed for J. Pote at Sir Isaac Newton's Head near Suffolk-Street, Charing-Cross, and R. Montagu at the corner of Great Queen-Street near Drury-Lane, 1729 (ESTC N1854) — parallel English and French text, engraved frontispiece with 'Mother Goose's Tales' set into the plate, dedication by Samber to the Countess of Granville. Two corrections to the census here: the imprint carries both J. Pote and R. Montagu, not Pote alone; and 'Englished by G. M. Gent' is the 1729 wording, where later 18th-century editions read 'Englished by R. S. Gent'.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club issue exists for a 1697 Paris duodecimo. The reprint traps are the Dutch counterfeits — Desbordes, Amsterdam, dated 1697 and passing as Paris work in the same year as the original — and, on the English side, the long chain of Samber reprints ('the Third Edition, Corrected', 'the Tenth Edition, Corrected', and provincial printings such as B. Collins of Salisbury, 1772, distributed by Carnan and Newbery, of which the Morgan holds a copy, PML 84676) that carry the identical Mother Goose title as the 1729 first. Modern 'first thus' traps include the Nonesuch 1925 'Histories or Tales of Past Times Told by Mother Goose' and print-on-demand facsimiles of the 18th-century sheets, which reproduce period title pages verbatim.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Histoires ou contes du temps passé (Perrault's fairy tales / Mother Goose)* by Charles Perrault a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/histoires-ou-contes-du-temps-pass-perraults-fairy-tales-moth
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.