Aesopi Phrygis Fabulae Elegantissimis iconibus veras animalium species ad viuum adumbrantibus

Abstract

This little book is an earlier edition of what had long been the oldest book in the collection, listed under 1619? This book is Bodemann #29. What a great thing! Bodemann's twenty-ninth oldest book! See my description of the later edition, including the following. One of the gems of this collection. Undersized and fragile. Bilingual in columns of Greek and Latin through 179, including: definitions of fable by Aphthonius and Philostratos, life of Aesop, and 150 fables (beginning on 119). Then several sections are bilingual on facing pages: 43 fables of Gabrius, the Battle of Mice and Frogs, the Battle of Cats and Mice. This book does not have the last section that appears in the edition I have put in 1619, namely 42 Latin fables by Avienus. There are many wonderful small illustrations with the 150 fables. The best of the illustrations: The Fox and the Goat (125), The Ass and the Horse (189), The Eagle and the Turtle (192), The Ethiopian (206), The Mistress and the Two Servants (209), and WC (273). I notice that, though all the illustrations here seem identical with their later counterparts, others from the later edition are not here, like The Cat and the Mice (154). There is an AI of fables at the back. Pages 129-130 are lacking. The spine and binding are badly damaged.