Some engravings from Labyrinte de Versailles, 1677, by Sébastian Le Clerc.

The “lost labyrinth of Versailles” was completed in 1677 for Louis XIV. It contained thirty-nine fountains, each of which depicted a scene from Aesop’s Fables. The Dauphin, Louis’ son, learned to read from the fables printed on the plaques affixed to each fountain.

The labyrinth was torn down by Louis XVI in 1778, and replaced by the Bosquet de la Reine, an English-style garden in which events involving Marie Antoinette and the infamous “Affair of the Diamond Necklace” took place.

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