Aesopi Phrygis Fabulae

Abstract

This book has one of those long titles. It goes on Nunc demum ex Collatione Optimorum Exemplarium ab infinitis pene Mendis repurgatae, una cum nonnullis Variorum Auctorum Fabulis adjectis. Et Indice Correctiori praefixo. My! The book is announced to be practically error-free, with some bonus fables from other authors, and a more exact index. The elements on the 192 pages of this smallish book (4 x 6½) include Planudes' Vita, an AI, and eighteen pages of Aesopic fables, perhaps three to a page. We find then offerings of fourteen interpreters of Aesop, listed but apparently not followed in this order: Adrianus Barlandus, Angelus Politianus, Anianus, Aulus Gellius, Erasmus Roterodamus, Gulielmus Gaudanus, Gulielmus Harmanus, Joannes Antonius Capanus, Laurentius Abstemius, Laurentius Valla, Nicolaus Gerbelius Phorcensis, Petrus Crinitus, Plinius Secundus Novocomensis, and Rimicius. I wish I had Pack Carnes here to track the offerings of each of these! The last eleven pages add fables from Poggio. Otherwise the most prominent of the interpreters seem to be Laurentius Abstemius and Rimicius. The spine of this much-used book with its small print is deteriorating.