Selectae Fabulae Aesopi, or Select Fables of Aesop

About this book

This 18th-century Latin textbook presents 202 Aesop's fables in Latin, "with an English translation more literal than any yet extant, designed for the readier instruction of beginners in the Latin tongue." There are fables here from the classical tradition, along with fables from the Renaissance author Abstemius and other neo-Latin sources. The book has the Latin and English texts in facing columns, with italic font being used to help students connect the Latin words in the left column with the English words in the right column. This LibriVox recording has been made with the Latin fables and English fables in separate files so that you can listen to the fables in Latin and/or in English as preferred. The fables in the book are numbered from 1 to 202, which will help those who want to look at the fable text while listening to the recording. The book was popular and went through many printings in both England and in the United States; this recording was done from an 1787 edition printed in Boston. - Summary by Laura Gibbs