Criticism > Literary Criticism (1400-1800) > The Aesopic Fable - The Aesopic Tradition Innon-English-Speakingcultures

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THE AESOPIC TRADITION IN NON-ENGLISH-SPEAKING CULTURES

Joseph R. Berrigan (essay date 1978)

SOURCE: "The Latin Aesop of Ermolao Barbaro," in Manuscripta, Vol. XXII, No. 3, November 1978, pp. 141-48.

[In the following essay, Berrigan looks at the Italian Renaissance tradition of teaching languages as well as morals via translations of Aesop's works.]

The Latin translators of Aesop in the first half of the Quattrocento comprise a small group of Italians, whose contributions to the field of fable literature have been the subject of study for the past century by both classical and Renaissance scholars. A particularly significant cluster of articles has been authored by Professor Chauncey E. Finch.¹ Before taking up Ermolao Barbaro and his apologues, I would like to provide the context of the Renaissance fable and the several men who busied themselves with Aesop in the early Quattrocento.

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1. Introduction
2. Representative Works
3. The British Aesopic Fable
4. The Aesopic Tradition Innon-English-Speakingcultures
5. Political Uses Of Theaesopic Fable
6. The Evolution Of The Aesopic Fable
7. Further Reading
8. Copyright