Die Fabeln des Erasmus Alberus: Abdruck der Ausgabe von 1550 mit den Abweichungen der ursprünglichen Fassung
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Authors
Alber, Erasmus
Braune, Wilhelm
Issue Date
1892
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Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
This is a hardbound version of a little (about 4¾ x 7) paperbound book already in the collection. The hardbound version makes it a little more difficult to find some of the information supplied on the cover of the paperbound version, namely that this book belongs to a series: Neudrucke deutscher Litteraturwerke des XVI. Und XVII. Jahrhunderts #104-7. I will include comments I made on that version, but only after comments I created before I realized that I already had a copy. The accomplishment of this book is to reproduce carefully the 1550 edition of Alberus' verse fables. This is a key edition, because a later second edition followed Alberus' death in 1553. Earlier published groups of fables were smaller; he seems to refer to them as the work of his youth. The heart of this book consists of Alberus' forty-nine fables, listed in a Register with page numbers on 6-7. In the 72 pages leading up to that point, one finds some very helpful scholarship, including careful assessment of Alberus' sources. The main source turns out to be not Steinhöwel but rather a long-titled edition from sometime before 1520. Names to recognize in that title include Guilielmus Goudanus, Hadrianus Barlandus, and Erasmus Roterodamus. I tried Alberus' first fable, CJ, and found it quite traditional. I also read Fable 33 about the ass who found a lion-skin and thought himself pope. This is good reformation propaganda. Alberus was of course a fervent disciple of Martin Luther. In fact, this fable praises Luther for revealing the lion-skin that the poe as ass had been wearing. The formal title of Alberus' 1550 book starts Das Buch von der Tugend und Weisheit. The collection seems to go under the title Die Fabeln Esopi. A lovely little find! This is the one book Bodemann cites as a reference for the work of Erasmus Alberus in Fabula Docet (#9). It contains LXXII pages of introductory material: Vorwort, Einleitung, Die Alten Ausgaben der Fabeln, Der Text des Neudrucks, Die Quellen der Fabeln, Zur Würdigung der Fabeldichtung des Alberus, and Die Ortsangaben bei Alberus. Then follow Alberus' own introductory materials and his forty-nine numbered fables on some 216 pages. The introductory materials include a title-page, Vorrede, T of C, and life of Aesop. There are copious footnotes to the fable texts. A number of them seem to indicate textual variations. Alberus' first fable, CJ, is placed bey Dantzig. Alberus moralizes the story quite simply: The jewel is art. The rooster is crazy people who live only for eating and drinking. There is no identification of the jewel with this book. Jewel or not, I feel very lucky to have come across this little book!
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Publisher
Verlag von Max Niemeyer
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Identifier
8031 (Access ID)