‎AUGUSTI LIBERTI Phaedri‎
‎Fabulae‎

‎Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabulae Aesopiae, avec une introduction et des notes par M. l'abbé Debrie.‎

‎ P., J. de Gigord, 1928, in-12, xxiii-235 pp, 9e édition, texte latin et notes explicatives en français, lexique latin-français pp 173-232, cart. éditeur, dos toilé, état correct‎

‎D'origine Thrace et esclave affranchi, Phèdre est le premier à avoir fait entrer le genre de la fable en langue latine. Son œuvre, ‘Les Fables ésopiques de Phèdre, affranchi d'Auguste’ (Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabulae Æsopiae), est un recueil de cinq livres comportant cent-vingt trois fables vérifiées. Profondément inspirées par Esope (même si seulement 47 pièces lui seraient directement empruntées), ses fables mettent en scène des animaux, des personnages humains ou Phèdre lui-même. De sa vie, on ne connaît en effet que ce qu'il révèle au travers de ses fables. Entre 14 et 31, il se fait connaître par un premier livre de fables qui lui vaut probablement l'exil. En effet, sous couvert d'apologues, son œuvre renferme parfois nombre d'allusions politiques sur la cour de l'Empire Romain. Phèdre ne sera jamais reconnu par ses contemporains. Il tombe dans l'oubli, pour être abondamment pillé par les fabulistes du Moyen Âge, et n'en ressortir qu'à la Renaissance, avec la découverte d'un manuscrit ancien. — Prêtre érudit, historien et archiviste, Emmanuel Debrie (1865-1941), nommé curé d’Ahuy en 1900, s’adonna aux recherches historiques : abonné à diverses revues, fréquentant les bouquinistes, il déchiffrait, copiait, annotait sans trêve. Il a peu publié : cet ouvrage, Phaedri Augusti Liberti Fabulae Aesopiae (1897 ; 10e éd. en 1938), étude de la langue latine et une trentaine d'articles ; il a surtout, accumulé une énorme documentation, aujourd’hui conservée à la Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon : 67 volumes, registres, cahiers, liasses, fiches, etc., dictionnaires toponymiques de la Côte-d’Or, notes généalogiques, propres du diocèse de Dijon, fichiers du clergé côte-d‘orien, histoire d’Ahuy, mélanges littéraires... instruments de travail pour tous les chercheurs et les curieux. ‎

‎Satirae duae, Hercules tuam fidem sive Munsterus Hypobolimaeus, et Virgula divina. Cum brevioribus annotatiunculis, quibus nonnulla in rudiorum gratiam illustrantur. Accessit his accurata Burdonum Fabulae confutatio, quibus alia nonnula hac editione accedunt. ‎

‎Leiden (Lugduni Batavorum), Apud Ludovicum Elzevirium, 1617. (Colophon at the end: 'Lugduni Batavorum, Typis Isaaci Elsevirii, anno 1617') ‎

‎12mo. (XXIV),619 (recte 529),(20),(3 blank) p. Overlapping vellum 13 cm (Ref: STCN ppn 832983446; USTC 1028202; Willems 123; Rahir 99; Berghman 1329 Graesse 6/1, 273/274; Not in Smitskamp's 'The Scaliger Collection', but it does figure in its list of Scaliger editions, p. 120) (Details: 5 thongs laced through the joints. Manuscript title on the back. The first Elzevier edition in small format) (Condition: Vellum age-toned and soiled. Front hinge cracking. Front flyleaf worn and inscribed. Title dustsoiled, and with 2 small ownership entries. Some old marginal notes, occasional ink underlinings) (Note: The French protestant classical scholar J.J. Scaliger, 1540-1609, was a genius, but was also vain and sharp tongued. Consequently he had many enemies. His greatest enemies were among members of the catholic Jesuit order. Scaliger had turned his back on France, and had come in 1592 to Leiden at the request of the authorities of that city and the local University, who desired nothing more than his inspiring presence. There he gathered around him a group of brilliant young man, among whom H. Grotius. In 1599 young Daniel Heinsius, 1580-1655, entered the group, and became 'because of his reputedly attractive personality and remarkable gifts' Scaliger's favorite student. (P.R. Sellin, Daniel Heinsius and Stuart England', Leiden etc., 1968, p. 14) Heinsius rapidly made a name as classical scholar and neolatin poet. In 1609 Scaliger died in his arms. One of Scaliger's foulest adversaries was a former friend, Gaspar Schoppe, or in Latin Scioppius, 1576-1649, who converted to catholicism. He distinguished himself by the virulence of his writings against the Protestants, and he even wanted to incite a war against these heretics. In 1607 this man published a vicious attack upon Scaliger with his 'Scaliger hypololymaeus', in English 'Suppositious Scaliger', or rather 'Basterd Scaliger'. 'Dem tobensten Schimpfen wird hier freier Lauf gelassen; Gifte jeder Art von Verunglimpfung und Verdächtigung werden zusammen gebraut'. (J. Bernays, 'Joseph Justus Scaliger', Berlin, 1855, p. 85) Scioppius wanted to throw discredit on Scaliger, and weaken his authority, so he attacked him at his weakest spot, his supposed noble birth. Scaliger had been raised in the belief that he was a descendent of the royal family Della Scala of Verona, and he let no opportunity pass to mention the splendour of his ancestry. The validity of his pretentions were however dubious. The challenge of Scioppius was accepted by the favourite pupil of Scaliger, Daniel Heinsius, who published one year later, in 1608, anonymously in defence of his master the 'Satirae duae, Hercules tuam fidem, sive Munsterus Hypobolimaeus, et Virgula divina', two mordant Menippean satires that covered Scioppius, who occasionally signed his letters off as 'G.S. a Munster' (hence Munsterus), with much abuse. As Scioppius himself had done with Scaliger, Heinsius smears with the mud of satire his scholarship, his name, the respectability of his parents, and his conversion to catholicism. In the following mockery 'Virgula Divina, sive Lucretii Vespillonis apotheosis', inspired by Seneca's Apocolocyntosis, Heinsius focusses on the humble origins of Scioppius, himself, he tells, a supposititious child. His 'father', called by Heinsius Vespillo, or corpse-bearer/gravedigger (See Martial I,47,1), is sentenced to become assistant of Charon. Scaliger has often admitted in his letters that Heinsius was the author of the satires, and the editor of the book, which opens with a preface dedicated to Scaliger, and a section of Scioppius praise of Scaliger from the time when he was still a friend and a protestant, then a support letter of the French scholar and friend of Scaliger, Isaac Casaubon. Next follow both satires of Heinsius, followed by an attack on Scioppius and his ancestry in a mock-biography: 'Vita et parentes Gasp. Schoppii, a Germano quodam contubernali eius conscripta', composed by Scaliger himself or by Ianus Rutgerus, a friend of Heinsius, and a student of Scaliger. The great man himself contributed, using the initials of his student Rutgerus (auctore I.R. Batavo, Iuris studioso) also to this own defence, a 'accurata Burdonum Fabulae confutatio', 'a precise refutation of the Burdonese story', with the help of charters and documents which should prove his noble origin. Nevertheless, the defence of Heinsius and Scaliger made 'einen sehr kühlen Eindruck auch auf die nähreren Freunde Scaligers'. (Bernays, p. 85). Few wanted to side with him on this matter; the answer of Scaliger was deemed not satisfactory. Scioppius' reputation was damaged too. Heinsius had portrayed him as a parasite and as 'Monster of Münster', labels which he never got rid of. A revised second edition of the 'Satirae duae' was published in the same year in Leiden by Johannes Patius, who had also published the first edition. 1609 he already produced his 4th edition. An eludicating survey of the hard to fathom content of both satires can be found in chapter 5 of 'Menippean Satire and the Republic of Letters, 1581-1655', of A. R. de Smet, Geneva, 1996. 'Hercules tuam fidem' is the title of Varro's 39th Menippean satire) (Provenance: On the title: 'Bern. à Mallinckroth', and also 'Sum J. Niefert'. On the front pastedown a Swedish name 'Henrik Kröijer', and probably one 'R. Berghes') (Collation: *12, A-Z12 (leaf Z11 verso and Z12 blank. Page numbers 513-529 misnumbered 603-619)) (Photographs on request) ‎

‎Hygini fabulae‎

‎Marshall, Peter K.: Hygini fabulae. Stuttgart: Teubner, 1993. 242 pages, not illustrated. Hardback. Text in Latin.‎

‎Text in Latin‎

‎Phaedri Aug. Liberti. Fabularum Aesopiarum. Suivi de Phaedri Fabularum Liber Sextus sive Fabulae Servatae in Codice Perottino...; suivi de Germanici Caesaris Aratea E Codd. Basil. Bern. Einsiedl emendata et Suppleta; suivi de Pervigilium Veneris ad Codd. Salmas. Et Pith. Exactum; suivi de Phaedri Fabulae NovaeXXXII. E Codice Vaticano Redintegratae ab Angelo Maio. Supplementum Editionis Orellianae; suivi de Accedunt Publii Syri Codd. Basil. Et Turic. Antiquissimi cum sententiis circiter XXX. Nunc primum editis; suivi de Ludovici Trossii ad Iulium Fleutelotcollegii regii borbonici quos parisiis floret professorem meritissimus De Codice quo amplissimus continetur phaedri paraphrastes Olim Wisseburgensi nunc guel pherbytano Epistola‎

‎ 1832 Turici, Typis Orellii, Fuesslini et Sociorum. 1832. Puis Hammone, Typis Schulzianis. 1844 pour le dernier texte. Un volume de format in 8° de 244, 60 et 32 pp. Reliure de l'époque en demi chagrin brun, un peu manié. Titre doré.‎

‎Quelques minimes défauts, mais ouvrage bien relié. Très nombreuses notes en bas de page; texte entièrement en latin. Quelques textes sont rares. ‎

‎CENTUM FABULAE EX ANTIQUIS AUCTORIBUS DELECTAE, ET A GABRIELE FAERNO CREMONENSI CARMINIBUS EXPLICATAE.‎

‎In hac postrema editione studiosius expurgatae. Index fabularium. Typis Brigoncijs, per Franciscum Ginamum, Venetiis, 1659. In-24 gr. (mm. 136x77), p. pergamena coeva, pp. 126,(4), vignetta inc. al frontespizio, molto ben illustrato nel t. da 100 deliziose composizioni xilografate, una per ogni favola. Rara edizione (non citata dalle principali bibliografie) di questa opera postuma che vide la luce per la prima volta nel 1563. Cfr. Choix de Olschki,VIII, pp. 3674/75 e Brunet,II,1160, per le numer. ediz del Cinque e del Settecento.Pagg. con lievi ingialliture, altrimenti esemplare ben conservato. "Gabriele Faerno (1510-1561), notaio e letterato.. Raccogliendo materiale favolistico soprattutto da Esopo, ma anche da altri autori antichi e moderni, il F. scrisse un testo Fabulae centum.. che conobbe una grande fortuna editoriale, e che venne tradotto in francese da C. Perrault". Così Diz. Biograf. Italiano,XLIV, p. 146-47.‎