Le Favole de Fedro in Versi Veneziani

Abstract

Finding this book in my first hours in Venice was a great omen! The Libreria Miracoli opens out onto the Piazza Miracoli, and this book was lying on the table out front. Each fable gets a new page on which to start. The Venetian version, complete with title, appears first, with the Italian version at the bottom of the page. The presentation of The Sow and the Wolf (186) contains an anomaly: the title of the Italian version is also in Venetian! The full-page black-and-white illustrations include FC (51), OF (66), The Dogs and the Crocodiles (68), The Frogs and the Bulls (74), The Mosquito and the Mule (98), The Cicada and the Owl (113), The Mountain That Gave Birth (146), The Bull and the Calf (165), The Sow and the Wolf (186), and The Snake and the Lizard (195). My favorites among these are The Bull and the Calf (165) and The Sow and the Wolf (186). The former contrasts nicely the bull's mass and the calf's suppleness. The latter also contrasts mass against spirit. In this case, the mass of the sow also includes intelligence enough to get rid of the wolf. The illustration for The Cicada and the Owl seems also to provide the backdrop for the cover and the illustration for the title-page. There is a T of C at the back.