Das grosse Buch der Fabeln

Abstract

This seems to be an earlier copy of a book I have already listed. The one difference I can find between the two copies is that the obverse of the title-page there lists 20.-25.Tausend, while there is no such marking here. Also this copies goes on to finish that remark on the book's printing with 62/1-10, while that other copy has 68/3. As I wrote there, this is a wonderful book, a major resource, and a great bargain! The woodcuts (fifteen colored, mostly poorly) come from Steinhöwel's Äsopus (1477) and Das Buch der Weisheit (1483); their page numbers are on 248. Six chapters group the material well by age and place. I have taken detailed separate notes, particularly on the differences from well known versions. The medieval period seems to rely heavily on Aesopic stories but to develop and fill them out significantly. Among the best of the fables here are Die Hasen fangen und braten den Jäger (119), Der lügnerische Knecht mit dem großen Fuchs (129), and Undank ist der Welt Lohn (206). Almost all the fables here are prose or prose translations. The Nachwort (225) is helpful on the difference between fable and Volksmärchen but less helpful on the difference between fable and parable, several examples of which are included here. The basic viewpoint on fable is that the recognition that grows out of its story belongs to the essence of fable. For Mudrak, the fact that some fables come from age-old materials ready at hand militates against Lessing's famous description of the genesis of a fable. Chains within this book of like fables, of similar stories with different meanings, and of thematically related materials are described on 233-6. There are good helps at the end: Quellenverzeichnis, Sachverzeichnis, Inhalt.