Aesop's Fables in Latin: Ancient Wit and Wisdom from the Animal Kingdom (English and Latin Edition) [Paperback]

Laura Gibbs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0865166951 | ISBN-13: 978-0865166950

This intermediate Latin reader allows students to review grammar and syntax and increase their knowledge of Latin prose style while they read eighty Aesop's fables in Latin prose, taken from the seventeenth-century edition illustrated by Francis Barlow. These Latin prose fables are ideal for Latin language students: simple, short, witty, and to-the-point, with a memorable moral lesson that provides a jumping-off point for discussion. Forty original black-and-white Barlow illustrations and 129 pertinent Latin proverbs are featured, spurs for classroom discussion. Selected fables include many that have become proverbial, such as 'The Tortoise and The Hare' and 'The Dog in the Manger,' along with lesser known fables.

This is the perfect ancillary for intermediate students, to increase comprehension, confidence, and enthusiasm for reading Latin.

Special Features

* Introduction, covering Aesop's fables in the ancient world, the Latin-language sources for the fables, and Aesop's fables in early modern England
* Latin Reading Guide, including study tips and strategies to increase student reading confidence-helps students read, not just translate
* 80 Aesop's fables in Latin prose, with - introductory comments with references to other versions of the fable - engaging grammar overview for review and to increase comprehension - opposite-page vocabulary notes for less familiar words - same-page grammar notes
* 40 black-and-white illustrations by Francis Barlow
* 129 thematically relevant Latin proverbs * 4 Appendices: - glossary of grammatical terms, with references to fables containing specific grammatical features - vocabulary frequency list - English vocabulary-building list based on the Latin vocabulary - annotated listing of online
* Bibliography for further reading

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Editorial Reviews

Review

AESOPUS VIVIT! Laura Gibbs' recent book, Aesop's Fables in Latin: Ancient Wit and Wisdom from the Animal Kingdom is a truly inspiring labor of love. Most of us were introduced as little children to these stories, especially the animal tales, in colorful, illustrated editions with simple language, complete with a moral lesson attached. It is likely that most of us have not picked up a copy of Aesop's Fables to read for enjoyment in years, except perhaps to our own children or grandchildren. But like the stories themselves, there is much more to this book than initially meets the eye! When you buy a copy of Aesop's Fables in Latin, you get much more than the 80 tales contained within. Gibbs' book is an open door to a rich, unbroken tradition of literature that spans the centuries, from ancient times to the middle ages and the Renaissance and on into the modern world, as well as to the incredible collection of ancillary resources that Gibbs has created online.

Aesop's Fables in Latin is beautifully organized. Be sure to read the author's introduction, which provides a guide to all the features included in the book as well as some of the best study tips and reading strategies for reading Latin that I have ever seen in a transitional reader. While Gibbs provides a thorough grammatical overview to the fables, she encourages nascent readers to go beyond mere translation, suggesting innovative ways to experience the fables beyond simply rendering them into English. She furnishes ideas for oral and dramatic interpretations of the stories as well as suggestions for incorporating composition and creative writing. The fables themselves are presented in a graduated order of difficulty, accompanied by their own individual introductions, grammatical overview, facing vocabulary, and helpful notes. Although no morals are provided in the Latin text, relevant and pithy Latin proverbs (another passion of the author) are interspersed throughout the book, providing inspiration for students to draw their own conclusions, consider different perspectives, and, hopefully, write their own morals in Latin. Other helpful features include lists of dramatis personae, a vocabulary frequency list, and a full Latin-English glossary. Forty original black-and-white illustrations by the 17th century painter and engraver Francis Barlow are included, providing additional context to many of the stories.

--Sharon Kazmierski, Latin Teach

Aesop's Fables in Latin is a wonderful new resource for second-year Latin courses and for independent learners who have completed an elementary program. Laura Gibbs, has taken a collection of Latin fables from the seventeenth century and repackaged it as a serious and smart intermediate reader. Aesop's Fables in Latin is made up of 80 of the original 110 Latin fables composed by the writer and translator Robert Codrington (1602-1665) for a trilingual fable book (Latin, French, and English) that became famous primarily because of its illustrations (of which Gibbs has included 40) by the English artist Francis Barlow (d. 1704). All of the fables are presented with extensive notes and instructive commentary (see below), and more than half of them are also adorned with one or more apposite proverbs in large shadowed textboxes. There is something refreshingly unfashionable about an intermediate reader that features the work of an author who is emphatically neither canonical nor ancient, and, moreover, one who is linked rather tenuously to an essentially anonymous ancient fable tradition. After all, most contemporary Latin programs aim to move students toward highly-valued and (usually) classical Latin authors as early as possible. But Aesop's Fables in Latin is anything but a radical break with tradition.

Gibbs has stripped all of the fables in Aesop's Fables in Latin of their original morals, reformatted them (punctuation and capitalization have been updated), and reorganized them according to the difficulty of the Latin. While the simplest fables are not easy to incorporate into a first-year course, anyone who has completed such a course ought to be able to handle even the most difficult ones. For example, the very first fable in the book uses indirect statement as well as subjunctives introduced by both cum and quod (topics some textbooks do not treat until their final chapters), while the last two fables have the gerund, deponent verbs, indirect questions introduced by uter and quomodo, and a causal subjunctive. The most distinctive feature of Aesop's Fables in Latin is the way in which Gibbs has constructed a total of 80 discussions of Latin grammar and style adapted to the 80 fables, so that each fable (e.g., 'Fable 48: DE LEONE ET URSO') is also devoted to a particular mini-lesson (e.g., 'Gerunds in the Ablative Case').

I especially recommend it to students exhausted by a year of elementary Latin, when the accumulation of forms and rules makes it difficult to believe that one can ever truly enjoy reading Latin for its own sake. Aesop's menagerie of forceful and memorable fabulae is here to help. --Jeremy Lefkowitz, Assistant Professor, Swarthmore College

Product Details

• Paperback: 358 pages
• Publisher: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers (February 1, 2009)
• Language: English, Latin
• ISBN-10: 0865166951
• ISBN-13: 978-0865166950
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,174 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for refreshing and improving your Latin February 21, 2009

By Caroline Lawrence

Format:Paperback

Laura Gibbs has already done students and teachers of Latin a favor with her online Latin fables: [...] Now she has produced this treasure-chest of a book with eighty of Aesop's fables.

Geared towards the student who already has some knowledge of the language, the fables in this volume may be short, but they are not necessarily simple. For example, take the first fable:

Leaena, cum a Vulpe saepe exprobaretur quod, quolibet partu, unum dumtaxat catulum parturiret, respondet, 'Unum sane, at pol Leonem!'

Instead of just giving the translation, Laura gives vocabulary and grammar clues and lets you work it out for yourself. The fables get longer and more challenging as the book progresses. The book is is also packed full of charming illustrations, mottoes and - best of all - short backgrounds to each fable.

My resolution is to do one a day: unum sane, at pol leonem!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Aesop Back in Latin, at Last! March 25, 2009

By Willis G. Regier

Format:Paperback

For centuries students were introduced to Latin through Aesop's fables. This book makes that possible again, but with much better student aids than the old textbooks ever had. This is fully equipped with a vocabulary, an introduction, and cross-references to enable a student to proceed steadily and when necessary, backtrack to review.

Additional improvements over former editions are the reproductions of engravings from the renowned (and rare) 1687 edition of Francis Barlow and a battery of on-line supplements. The Latin versions (Aesop spoke Greek) are by Robert Codrington, and are taken from the same edition of Barlow.

Animating the entire book is the editor's exuberant enthusiasm for Aesop. She does her utmost to make the Latin fables attractive. The book is very well printed and produced, in large format.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful! March 31, 2010

By Fraser Pearce

Format:Paperback

This is a wonderful production - if you have some basic Latin it will give you everything else you need to enjoy reading the fables.

Do have a look at the 'search inside this book' section - you'll get a good idea how well Laura Gibbs has done in putting the volume together.