Thursday, January 31, 2008

Round-Up: February 1

What a busy week this has been - apologies for no posting yesterday! Here is a round-up of Thursday's blog posts (you can browse through previous round-ups at the Bestiaria Latina Blog archives). You can keep up with the latest posts by using the RSS feed, or you can subscribe by email.

Vulgate Verses. The Vulgate Verses book is now available (from Lulu Publishers), and I'm adding Study Guides at the Vulgate Verses blog. The Study Guide I've added today is for Group 20, which includes the famous saying about the spirit being willing but the flesh being weak: Spiritus quidem promptus; caro vero infirma.

LatinViaFables.com: I'm continuing to work my way through the 15th-century Latin fables of Abstemius! With each fable I'm posting the Latin text, a segmented Latin text, along with an English translation by me, plus the rollicking 17th-century translation by Sir Roger L'Estrange. Today's fable is De asino tubicine et lepore tabellario: The Donkey Trumpeter and the Rabbit Courier. This shows the lion as a sensible ruler, able to make the best use of every one of his subjects!

I've recently discovered that there is a whole sequence of Abstemius fables retold in verse by Osius (1574, Phryx Aesopus Habitu Poetico) - with illustrations! So here is an illustration from Osius for today's fable about the lion, the donkey and the rabbit: