NOTES 



^HE European /Esop is derived from the Latin and 

 German iEsop compiled by Heinrich Stainhowel 

 about 1480 a.d. This consists of the following 

 six parts (see Pedigree opposite). 



(1) Medieval life of iEsop, attributed to Planudes. (I. in 

 Pedigree.) 



(2) Four books of fables, connected with the name of 

 Romulus, but really, as modern research has shown, all 

 derived from Phaedrus, though in a fuller form than the 

 extant remains of that poet. (II. -V. in Pedigree.) 



(3) Fabulae Extravagantes : a series of beast stories of the 

 Reynard the Fox type, and probably connected with the new 

 fables introduced by Marie de France. (VI. in Pedigree.) 



(4) A few fables from the Greek prose iEsop, really 

 prosings of Babrius. (VII. in Pedigree.) 



(5) Selection from the fables of Avian. (VIII. in Pedigree.) 



(6) Facetiae from Poggio and Petrus Alfonsi. 



All the vernacular versions of Europe were derived in the 

 first instance from this omnium gatherum. Thus in England 

 Caxton introduced the Stainhowel through the medium of 

 the French. Later collections omitted much of the Stain- 

 howel, especially the Fabulae Extravagantes and the Facetiae^ 

 and added somewhat from the later editions of the Greek 

 prose iEsop, which up to the time of Bentley were supposed 

 to be derived from the Samian slave himself. La Fontaine 



