{"title":"Fables, Legends \u0026 Myths","description":"\u003cp\u003eTraditional stories, folklore, mythological tales, and moral narratives.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"aesop","title":"AESOP","description":"\u003cp\u003eOne of the rarest and most sought after editions of the early Aldine press and in practice the earliest obtainable of the author's original text. The volume comprises the Aesopian Fables in Latin and Greek, together with a life of the author, similarly the 34 fables of Gabrias, Phurnutus on the 'nature of the Gods', Palaephatus on disbelieving histories, Heraclides on the allegories of Homer, the hieroglyphs of Horapollo, a collection of proverbs drawn from Tarraeus and Didymus, Aphthonius and Philostratus' de fabula in Latin and Greek, those of Hermogenes translated by Priscian, and finally an Apologia for Aesop 'de Cassita apud Gellium'. Almost all of these, apart from the Aesop, are in their first edition or editio princeps, Praz p. 373 particularly notices the Horapollo. \u003cbr\u003e\n Aesop is the traditional composer of the oldest and most important collection of Greek Fables, which are probably the earliest examples of popular and maybe children's literature still extant. Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC already knew of Aesop as an author from the past. Aesop's life has been overlaid by many romantic fictions but it is fairly certain that he was a Thracian, a house slave and likely a family tutor on the island of Samos at the beginning of the 6th century BC. His Fables are one of the most enduring works of European literature, of which the earliest written compilation probably dates from three centuries later and is now lost. The earliest surviving version is Roman, made by Babrius, tutor to the children of Alexander Severus in the 3rd century AD, though stories from other, especially oriental sources, were probably added. The collection we now recognise was compiled and edited by Maximus Planudes and from which the popular fables of modern Europe have been derived. Whatever their exact origin they have constituted a delightful source of amusement and instruction for children of all ages since they were popularised by the printed editions of the C16, of which none is more important than this printed and edited by Aldus.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AESOP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816065999183,"sku":"L1283","price":59500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1283-6.jpg?v=1781795331"},{"product_id":"tabourot-etienne","title":"TABOUROT, Étienne","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn early edition of this compilation of the complete works of the 'Rabelais of Bourgogne', which \"eut un grand success, qu'il dut surtout √† l'originalit é de son auteur, incarnation vigeureuse de la gaiet é franche et de la na√Øvet é maliciuese du vieil esprit gaulois\". Tabourot (known as Le Seigneur des Accords), a talented lawyer, friend of Montaigne and Pasquier, and 'juge ch√¢telain de la baronnie de Verdun en Bourgogne', spent ten years before his appointment broadening his mind at the University in Paris and in traveling. He published a number of works, among them a revised edition of his uncle Jehan Le Fèvre's works. He started work early on the present collection of works, a playful smorgasbord of popular folk-tales and fables, satirical pieces, rhymes, basic numerology and codemaking, sorcerers and impostors, the invetion of many anagrams and above all amusing nothings, which at the same time are frequently instructive, but also include \"des obscenit és grossières et immondes\". However, unlike most surviving works of the period, it provides us with a rare view of the literature of the people and the tastes of ordinary readers, especially of Dijon and Burgogne. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The first edition of this collection of Tabourot's works was J. Richer's in Paris in 1603 (on which the present edition is based). However, some of the works had been published separately in the 16th century, most notably the Touches (first published 1585-88 - \"les exemplaires complets des editions originales de cet ouvrage sont si rare qu'on chercherait vainement\"), which suffered at the hands of 16th-century editors, and are conventionally much reduced in collected editions. Nevertheless, what remains is an amusing and unusual testimony to the playful side of the post-Renaissance, afforded a signal charm by the na√Øf woodcuts illustrating the text.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TABOUROT, Étienne","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816118722895,"sku":"L468","price":2250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0016.jpg?v=1781795301"},{"product_id":"holkot-robertus","title":"HOLKOT, Robertus","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe handsome C15 binding, with floral diaper tools in blind, reprises a pattern found in Southern Germany from c.1500 (e.g., Goldschmidt II, 42). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Fine copy of the fifth edition on this extremely influential medieval commentary on the  Book of Wisdom . The English Dominican Robert Holkot (or Holcot, c.1290-1349) was a renowned philosopher and biblical exegete, professor of theology at Oxford and a follower of William of Ockham s scholasticism. Intended as a manual for preachers, his  Supra sapientiam Salomonis  features over 100  lectiones  which interpreted, illustrated, questioned, doubted and responded to specific theological  loci , according to the Scholastic method. These included the meaning of  wisdom , its acquisition, how it never  rottens away  and is linked to justice, and in keeping with Holkot s interest in moral wisdom why princes and magistrates should study to achieve it through piety and philosophy. Holkot made original use of his biblical, patristic and classical sources including Seneca and Lucan. He used anecdotes and fables on Greek gods and mythological figures drawn, for instance, from Ovid s  Metamorphoses , like the story of Echo, as well as vivid comparisons which preachers could use in their sermons: e.g., wisdom and falsity do not mix well in a person, like gold and tin in an alloy or syllables in a stammering mouth. Holkot s commentary was possibly a source of Geoffrey Chaucer s  Nun s Priest s Tale ; first printed in 1476, it went through five editions in less than twenty years. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The annotators were monks of the Order of Hermits of St Augustine in the Monastery of Seemannshausen in South Bavaria, where this copy was probably kept until the Secularisation of the early C19. The first wrote marginalia in black ink summarising key passages; in his ex-libris on the front pastedown he calls himself  lector  and  praedicator  hence he was probably a teacher of philosophy in a religious school but also  exul , his handwriting suggesting British origins. Another annotator, who may also be the rubricator, highlighted Holkot s sources in red, particularly Ovid (whom he marked in red as  poe[ta] ). He was much offended by a passage, which he crossed out, concerning the foundation of the Augustinian monastic rule and the orders that followed it, including the Hermits of St Augustine. Holkot stated that, as a Manichaean youth, Augustine had been neither a monk nor a hermit, and he mocked the traditional origin of these orders who traced their foundation to the saint s early adhesion to monasticism.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HOLKOT, Robertus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816145822031,"sku":"L2863","price":8500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Holkot-L2386-1.jpg?v=1781794945"},{"product_id":"straparola-gianfrancesco","title":"STRAPAROLA, Gianfrancesco","description":"\u003cp\u003eScarce, beautifully illustrated edition of this incredibly successful, influential and entertaining florilegium of novellae, first published in 1551 in the wake of Giacomo Morlini s collection of 1520. Very little is known of Gianfrancesco Straparola (1480-1557), except that, in half a century, his literary talent led to the publication of over 20 editions or reprints of  Piacevolissime notti  in Italian and French. As in Boccaccio s  Decameron , the stories are presented as the pastime of a group of aristocrats who have gathered in the Venetian island of Murano for leisure, during  thirteen pleasant nights . The stories are illustrated with fine woodcuts and follow accidents typical of traditional fairy and folk tales. They often narrate the difficulties of protagonists who are poor or unfortunate and eventually rise to become rich and powerful, as in the story of Costantino Fortunato, impoverished by his brothers but assisted by his magical female cat the seed of Perrault s  Puss in Boots . Plotline themes like the subdivision of inheritance between siblings, the wrongdoings of stepmothers against their stepdaughters, the assistance of talking animals, unpleasant pranks which lead to undeserved prison and the consequences of lies provided the basic structure by which Straparola reinvented and brought to print the oral heritage of European folklore. His stories influenced authors of the likes of Shakespeare (Gillespie,  Shakespeare s Books , 474) and provided fresh material for innovative theatre practitioners like Robert Armin the famous  clown  and  fool  of Shakespeare s Jacobean plays who published the English adaptation of one of Straparola s  thirteen pleasant  stories in 1609.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"STRAPAROLA, Gianfrancesco","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816155586895,"sku":"L2887","price":2400.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1_d016bc74-e59b-4f35-8c35-128e6d3b7c20.jpg?v=1781794914"},{"product_id":"warner-william","title":"WARNER, William","description":"\u003cp\u003eA remarkable, completely unsophisticated copy, of the very rare second edition of Warner s poem, with the addition of two books added from the first; stab bound as originally issued, probably never with the woodcut plate.  William Warner is best remembered for his  Albions England  (1586), a verse history of Britain, covering in its final edition events from Noah to the reign of James I. .. Little is know of Warner s biography. Born about 1558   probably in London   Warner worked as an attorney of the Court of Common Pleas in the same city, where he developed his reputation as an author and most likely associated with other men of letters.. The episodic history, Albions England, written in fourteen-sylable lines, incorporates much fictional and mythical material; its structure is influenced by Ovid. This popular work went through several editions during Warner s lifetime, each adding material to the narrative. The first, consisting of four books, was published in 1586 and relates events through the Norman Conquest. The second (1589), consisting of six books, covers events to the accession of Henry VII.  Tudor England: An Encyclopedia. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Warner fills his account with many picturesque details many of which he elaborates on from the original source material.One such example is his account of Robin Hood. Warner dates the historical Robin Hood to the reign of King Richard I, but he tells the story out of sequence, under the reign of King Edward II, as an inset to another tale. The narrator is an unnamed hermit; he is addressing the opposition leader Thomas, Earl of Lancaster (like Robin Hood, a  malcontent ), who has encountered him in the woods at a time when Lancaster is a fugitive from his enemies. Warner s immediate source for his version was evidently Richard Grafton s Chronicle at Large (1569). Like Grafton, he makes Robin Hood into a nobleman. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Warner s chief work and his earliest experiment in verse was a long episodic poem in fourteen-syllable lines, which in its original shape treated of legendary or imaginary incidents in British history from the time of Noah till the arrival in England of William the Conqueror, but was continued in successive editions until it reached the reign of James I. In its episodic design it somewhat resembled Ovid s  Metamorphoses.  Historical traditions are mingled with fictitious fables with curious freedom. The first edition in four books now a volume of the utmost rarity appeared in 1586, under the title  Albion s England.   The work was brought down to the accession of Henry VII in the second edition, which included six books. ..  Albion s England  in its own day gained a very high reputation, which was largely due to the author s patriotic aims and sentiment. But his style, although wordy and prosaic, is unpretentious, and his narrative, which bears little trace of a study of Italian romance, and lacks the languor of current Italian fiction, occasionally develops an original vigour and dignity which partially justify the eulogies of the writer s contemporaries. Thomas Nash in his preface to Greene s  Menaphon  (1589), after mentioning the greatest of English poets, remarked,  As poetry has been honoured in those before-mentioned professors, so it hath not been any whit disparaged by William Warner s absolute Albions.  DNB. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Of the eight copies recorded by ESTC, the a copy at the Folger, those at Harvard and Huntington are recorded as having  woodcut plate . The copies at the Library of Congress and Illinois both do not. BL and Oxford Bodleian do not specify. A remarkable copy of this very rare work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WARNER, William","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816156930383,"sku":"K84","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/K84-6.jpg?v=1781794906"},{"product_id":"d-anania-giovanni-lorenzo","title":"D ANANIA, Giovanni Lorenzo","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very good copy of the second Aldine edition of this important work on demonology, first published in 1581. Giovanni Lorenzo d Anania (1545-1609) was an Italian theologian and geographer, also the author of a famous  Cosmografia  (1576). Anania believed that witchcraft had been particularly active in his age and  De natura daemonum  provided a thorough study of the ways in which daemons were responsible. It theorises the existence and nature of subterranean and aerial malevolent spirits (from movement to voice) and studies how they affect human life as the cause of sundry physical and social ills: e.g., incurable diseases, earthquakes, false images generated through astrology and necromancy, and some poetic  fables . Fascinating are his remarks on exorcisms, a few of which he apparently witnessed, and miracles derived from saints  relics; these could be used to scare demons away (though not always successfully) and help treat serious illnesses. Despite Anania s Catholicism, the whole work is pervaded by mild Protestant leanings which surface, for instance, in his belief that demons encouraged people not to use their own vernaculars during mass as well as in his often ambivalent opinion on the a nature of relics (Thorndike VI, 528).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"D ANANIA, Giovanni Lorenzo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57820346089807,"sku":"L2600","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9250.jpg?v=1781794814"},{"product_id":"rustichello-da-pisa","title":"[RUSTICHELLO DA PISA].","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Splendid copy of the scarce and rarely complete second edition, in luxury folio format, of this influential French chivalric romance   formerly in the fine libraries of the Duke of Roxburghe and Charles Fairfax Murray. The  roman  of the knight-errand Meliadus, Tristan s father, originates in the Arthurian prose  Tristan . Written by H élie de Borron c.1235-40 as an answer to the Lancelot-Graal romances, it became a milestone of the genre. It covers the period between Meliadus s son Tristan s birth and his remarriage to King Hoel s daughter. Denis Janot specialised in printing romance and fiction, often in expensively produced editions.  This level of investment suggests a strong confidence in the market for romance  (Rawles, 2018, p.43). . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..The text is based on the French translation and adaptation of the influential Arthurian compilation of Rustichello da Pisa (fl.C13)   who assisted Marco Polo in writing his travelogue   made at the request of Edward I of England. The name of the French translator remains unknown (cf. Rawles, 2018, n.17).  The printed  Meliadus  is set, fictionally, at the very end of the reign of Uther Pendragon, and it provides an immediate prehistory of the world of Arthur and of the prose  Tristan ,   Lancelot s father,   Gauvain s father, Lac father of Erec, and King Pharamond of Gaul . It is also the  retroactive  continuation of the roman  Guiron le Courtois , printed c.1501, the narrative of which overlaps with the second part of  Meliadus  (Taylor, p.92). The sundry adventures of Meliadus include witnessing King Arthur s coronation, becoming the Queen of Scotland s lover, plotting with King Pharamond (the first Merovingian king) and King Marc of Cornwall, and fighting against the fathers of future knights of the Round Table. It ends with Meliadus  murder whilst hunting at Leonnoys. The charming title woodcut, produced by an anonymous artist, reprises the style of Geoffrey Tory, and is only found in three other works c.1533-4. . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..Formerly in the library of the major bibliophile and collector, John Ker, 3rd Duke of Roxburghe, whose remarkable library was sold in 1812 (lot 6160).  The sale   was a most sensational affair and the total of ¬¨¬£23,342 was an extraordinary one at the time   The Roxburghe Club was inaugurated in commemoration    (de Ricci). Roxburghe also owned several medieval mss of vernacular romances, including Meliadus. Thomas Jolley (fl. early C19) probably acquired this copy at the Roxburghe sale; de Ricci calls him a  forgotten collector whose seven sales lasted from 1843 to 1853  (p.107). . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n.. ..This copy matches the first of three issues, with Janot s imprint alone..\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"[RUSTICHELLO DA PISA].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868674302287,"sku":"L4033","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L4033-3.jpg?v=1781793656"},{"product_id":"sahula-isaac-ben-solomon-ibn","title":"SAHULA, Isaac ben Solomon, ibn.","description":"\u003cp\u003e.Third edition of the first illustrated Hebrew book, with 79 very fine woodcuts, the earlier eds are usually found with 75. Rarely found complete, this is also the earliest obtainable edition, the first (1491) and second (1497) have passed through the market, both in incomplete copies, only twice. This copy is also remarkably preserved in an early binding, with interesting early North Italian provenance.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n.. ..It is the only  medieval Hebrew work with a continuous tradition of illustration going back to the author himself who provided rhymed captions for illustrations (Stern). The printer of this lovely and elegant ed., Meir Parenzo, learnt his craft at the Venetian presses of Daniel Bomberg and Marco Antonio Giustiniani. The illustrations had been an integral part of the work since its composition and are present in medieval mss as well, the earliest surviving codex dating from c.1450 (Habermann, p.169). The woodcuts reprise  those in contemporary eds of Aesop s fables, depicting animals, and less often people, engaged in various activities, including their discussions.   They were prepared by three different hands  (Haller, p.333).  Although these woodcuts are frequently referred to as sensuous, or even pornographic, there is but one illustration (p.170). that of the faithless wife and her lover, that includes an explicit feature. In some copies [as in the present], this has been obscured by pen-work  (Loewe, p.cxxiv). . \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n..Isaac bin Sahula (b.1244) was a Hebrew poet, scholar, physician and kabbalist from Castile, who travelled widely in the Iberian peninsula and Egypt.  Sahula s  Meshal ha-kadmoni\", completed in 1281, is one of the most famous works of Jewish literature from medieval Castile. Divided into five sections respectively on wisdom, penitence, good counsel, humility and reverence, it comprises dozens of self-contained fables, mostly accompanied by an illustration, in rhyming Hebrew prose with occasional verse following the Arabic  maq_ma  tradition, featuring animals as protagonists. Indeed, Sahula became known as  the Jewish Aesop . The fables are inserted as examples within a broader dialogue on those virtues between a Cynic and a Moralist. Among the fables are passages on natural science, medicine, philosophy, astronomy, geography, perception, meteorology and astrology.. \u003cbr\u003e\n. \u003cbr\u003e\n.. ..The late C17 and early C18 provenance appears to be north-west Italian, like the binding. Giacomo Ottavio Giustiniani was a Genoese aristocrat and commissioner at Ovada, Piedmont, mentioned in numerous local records c.1660s-80s. The Giustiniani family was born as a  maona  (business aggregation) of kin Genoese aristocratic families, in charge of the Island of Chios, which they lost in 1566. Some of the Hebrew autographs mention members (Abraham and Isaac) of the Valabrega family, present in Piedmont since the C16, and the manager of several  banchi  in Turin, in the C17 and C18. The Foa, originally a Jewish family from France, had been in Piedmont since the C15. Francesco Lonperto's name is followed by the Italian nickname  Grattarogna  ( scab scratcher ), an anti-Semitic stereotype found in several European proverbs (e.g., Poland, in Skuza, p.55, Venice, in Fortis, p.281). The Babylonian Talmud also has a few lines on scratching one s own scab on the day of the Sabbath. Mayer Sulzberger (1843-1923) was a judge and book collector, owner of one of the finest private libraries in America, later donated to the Jewish Theological Seminary. .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SAHULA, Isaac ben Solomon, ibn.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868686721359,"sku":"L4298","price":64500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_7436.jpg?v=1781793470"},{"product_id":"fulgentius-fabius-planciades","title":"FULGENTIUS, Fabius Planciades.","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this fundamental work on ancient Greek myths, comprising Fulgentius‚Äô fables and a critical commentary by the humanist G.B. Pio. A privilege granted by Ludovicus Maria Sforza is printed on the title verso, giving publishing rights for this and other editions to Johannes Passiranus de Asula, a wealthy scholar who paid for the publication of several ancient works based on mss he owned and which he wanted to circulate for the use of scholars and students. Fulgentius (5th-6th cent.) was a Latin writer probably born and educated in North Africa, historically confused with a contemporary bishop, St Fulgentius. ‚ÄòEnarrationes‚Äô includes Fulgentius‚Äô interpretation of 50 fables, surrounded by Pio‚Äôs commentary. The protagonists of the fables include Greek and Roman deities, mythological figures (e.g., Tantalus, Acteo, Adonis, Prometheus), literary chatacters (e.g., Thyresias, Ulysses), and talking animals (e.g., the crow). Fulgentius provides a short summary for each, followed by an allegorical intrerpetation, often supported by etymological deductions: e.g., the sirens Ulysses encounters represent pleasure and lasciviousness, but the wise man avoids them. Pio‚Äôs commentary added references to Christian exegesis of ancient mythology, including St Augustine. An interesting appendix is Fulgentius‚Äô ‚ÄòExpositio sermonum antiquorum‚Äô, a concise vocabulary of obsolete or obscure Latin words. ‚ÄòPio pushed the Latin language beyond the linguistic boundaries of Ciceronian golden age and instead delighted in the archaic, the archaizing, and the rare‚Äô, thus producing a ‚Äòcutting-edge‚Äô edition (Hartmann, p.21). A thorough early C16 annotator, probably an advanced student with some knowledge of Greek, glossed numerous fables, but most of all he delighted, like Pio, in Fulgentius‚Äô final list of Latin words. His glosses summarised the general meaning of the fables or clarified words or nouns (e.g., Apollos as Sun, Venus as Luxuria), correcting occasional typos.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FULGENTIUS, Fabius Planciades.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868709822799,"sku":"L4548","price":8750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/fulgentius-L4548-3.jpg?v=1781793412"},{"product_id":"homer-9","title":"HOMER","description":"\u003cp\u003eA charming Latin-Greek pocket edition of Homer s complete works, printed in Geneva. The  Odyssey  was sometime in the library of the French humanist and poet Jacques Poille (1565-1623), and bears his motto and a few ms marginalia. Poille s autograph is also present in other C16 Greek editions (e.g., at NYPL). This is the second impression with Bud é s Latin text. Later in the library of the great French bibliographer Jacques-Charles Brunet (1780-1867), and n.172    charmante exemplaire    in his London sale catalogue (1868).  \u003cbr\u003e\n Homer has remained an obscure figure in the history of Western poetry. Whilst his  Iliad  and  Odyssey  are dated to the C9-8BC, it is uncertain whether there ever was a blind bard of such genius or whether his persona came to be used to identify the output of a long- standing oral epic tradition, or indeed both. One of the most influential poems of Western civilisation, the  Iliad  narrates the last years of the Greeks  siege of Troy, focusing on the causes and consequences of Achilles s  wrath  - the opening word of the poem - after King Agamemnon seizes his concubine. The  Odyssey  famously recounts the adventurous journey of Ulysses, King of Ithaca, to his native island after the end of the Trojan War, facing sirens, cyclops and many other perils.  Batrachomyomachia  narrates a battle between Mice and Frogs, assisted by Zeus and other deities. The 33  Hymns  - attributed to, but not composed by, Homer   are each devoted to a different god or goddess, and written in a Greek language as archaic as Homer s. At the end of this ed. are poetic works, edited by Neander, by Colluthus Thebaeus and Tryphiodorus Aegyptius, thematically connected with the Homeric material but rarely printed in the C16 and C17s.  \u003cbr\u003e\n From the library of the author George Brunet.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HOMER","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868710904143,"sku":"L4444","price":7950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/homer-1.jpg?v=1781793404"},{"product_id":"aesop-et-al","title":"AESOP et al.","description":"\u003cp\u003eA charmingly-printed, scarce early edition, intended as a textbook, of ancient Latin fables by Aesop, Aulus Gellius, and Pliny, adapted and edited by major humanists such as Erasmus, Politianus, and Crinitus. Short fables were among the fundamental instruments for the teaching and learning of Latin and Greek by humanist educators and scholars. Erasmus considered Aesop s fables essential as  primers ,  exercises for composition , and  moral training  (Reiger, p.52), and was a great promoter of Aesop in the C16. The edition presents each fable plainly and simply, with generous interlinear blank space for annotations. \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy was carefully annotated by a contemporary student, who signed himself Steffanus Spreugel, in a Germanic cursive hand. A Stefanus Sprugel matriculated at the University of Vienna in 1500, and by 1518 would have been indeed a  magister ; he was later  Decanus  of the Arts Faculty. The NL of Austria holds a ms  Annotationes in Lactantium De opificio Dei  (Codex Vindobonensis Palatinus 11726) by (arguably the same) Stefanus Sprugel. His title as well as the kind of annotations, with references to Plato, suggests that these were notes for teaching. He employs the usual humanist method of interlinear paraphrase or translation, adding marginal glosses, apparently not taken from printed sources, on the moral (beginning with  recto sit , i.e., it is proper or morally correct) of several fables. Among the authorities mentions in the glosses are Pliny, Socrates, Horace,  De Re rustica , Cicero, Cato, and Boethius. A very interesting copy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AESOP et al.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868712313167,"sku":"L4112b","price":5750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Aesop_binding_webpic-1.png?v=1781793395"},{"product_id":"barbieri-giovanni-maria-ed-fino-alemanio","title":"BARBIERI, Giovanni Maria, ed. FINO, Alemanio","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare second edition of Barbieri s (1519-74) Italian prose rendering of the Niccol‚àö‚⧠da Casola s C14th Franco-Italian poem by the same name. Barbieri s version was first published Ferrara 1568, this Venice edition by an obscure Italian author, Alemanio Fino, with summaries of each book and a glossary explaining difficult Italian words to the rear. \u003cbr\u003e\n The Bolognese humanist Casola s poem was based on a prose version from the French romance tradition, the Estoire d Atile en Ytaire, which was likely derived from earlier Latin sources. In Barbieri s preface, which is preserved in this edition, he describes manuscript sources found in the archives of the Este family - dukes of Ferrara and patrons of both Barbieri and da Casola - acknowledging da Casola but also harking back to an almost certainly fictitious Latin source, a contemporary account of the Hunnic invasion and sack of Aquileia in 452 AD by Tomaso d Aquileia, secretary to the C5th Nicetas, Archbishop of the city. \u003cbr\u003e\n Da Casola s poem begins with a knights  tournament, staged by King Ostrubal of Hungary to find a husband suitable for his daughter. However, just before she is due to marry the victor, against her wishes, she is impregnated by a greyhound that shares her bed, and gives birth to Attila, half-dog and half-man. Barbieri confirms that Attila had a canine appearance and ferocity, but discounts da Casola s romantic version of his birth, writing that Attila was simply a noble scion of the Huns who learned his feral ways in the forests of his homeland. He does, however, retain the chivalric aspects of da Casola s version, especially its tournaments and combats between noble knights, in telling the story of Attila s invasion of Italy and battles with the King of Padua and with Foresto, legendary ancestor and first prince of the Este family, who dies during the siege of Aquileia.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BARBIERI, Giovanni Maria, ed. FINO, Alemanio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57868720669007,"sku":"L3874","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage-3_9c253032-cc82-49e5-900f-3630f13e81c2.png?v=1781793356"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/collections\/Aesop-close-up_864c1a8d-7823-46a4-b66f-882ddc727d32.jpg?v=1781369427","url":"https:\/\/www.sokol.co.uk\/collections\/fables-legends-myths.oembed","provider":"Sokol Books Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}