Vita, & Fabellae Aesopi …

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Creator

Aesop.

Title

Vita, & Fabellae Aesopi …

Coverage

Venice

Publisher

Aldus Manutius

Date

October 1505

Description

Although not strictly part of Aldus’s Portable Library, this Aesop nonetheless represents Aldus’s desire to spread the knowledge of Greek through the dissemination of great literature. According to Herodotus and Aristotle, Aesop (ca. 620–564 BCE) was a slave on the Greek island of Samos who collected stories and eventually earned his freedom through his wit. In this sole Aldine edition of Aesop’s Fables, the Greek and Latin text is interleaved to aid those readers who knew Latin but not Greek. Yet the texts are separable. The Greek pages are numbered sequentially, and are occasionally found bound together without the Latin translation.

Source

From the collection of G. Scott Clemons.