FUN-SIZE FABLES
PHAEDRUS et al.
Phaedri fabulae. L. Annaei Senecae, ac Publii Syri sententiae.
Orléans, Couret de Villeneuve, 1773.
16mo, pp. [4], 91, [1]; text within decorative frame throughout; slightly cockled, a very few small marks; very good in contemporary French red morocco, gilt triple fillet border to covers, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, edges gilt, marbled endpapers, pink silk place marker; extremities very slightly rubbed.
An attractive edition of Phaedrus’ fables with the sententiae of Publilius Syrus and Seneca the Younger, printed in small type, in an attractive contemporary binding.
Phaedrus’ five books of verse fables ‘written in iambic senarii, consist of beast-tales based largely on Aesop, as well as jokes and instructive stories taken not only from Hellenistic collections but also from his own personal experience ... Besides his professed purpose of providing amusement and counsel, Phaedrus sometimes satirizes contemporary conditions both social and political. His work evidently evoked considerable criticism and retorts to his detractors are frequent. The presentation is animated and marked by a humorous and charming brevity of which Phaedrus is rightly proud’ (Oxford Classical Dictionary).
The fables are followed here by a series of maxims by the slave turned mime Publilius Syrus, with Senecan and pseudo-Senecan interpolations. Over 700 genuine lines survive, including the famous ‘Iudex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur’ (‘acquittal of the guilty damns the judge’).
Martin Couret de Villeneuve (1717–1780) was printer to the French king, to the duc d’Orléans, and to the bishop and college of Orléans.
Library Hub records three copies (BL, Bodleian, Eton).
