Page:The fables of Aesop, as first printed by William Caxton in 1484, with those of Avian, Alfonso and Poggio. Vol 1.djvu/30

 2 THE MEDIEVAL AESOP. rial, the very raw material, from which the history of the Latin Mediaeval Aesop can now be definitively settled. M. Hervieux's work has itself a history which deserves to be briefly recited. M. Hervieux, a lawyer of some distinction, has daughters whom he desired to initiate into the beauties of Latin literature. The choice of books suit- able for such young persons is, we know, some- what limited, and M. Hervieux wisely fixed upon Phsedrus, which he determined to trans- late for their use. But in order to translate, you must have a fixed text, and M. Hervieux found that of Phsedrus by no means fixed ; he found moreover that even the number of Phsedrine fables was an independent variable. His interest was aroused and he determined to see the matter out. And he did see the matter out, though everything seemed against him at the start ; he had received no philolo- gical training and had never had a Latin MS. in his hands. In the course of his researches he visited almost every library of importance lying between the Isis and the Elbe, between Cambridge and Rome. Meanwhile, let it be parenthically observed, the Miles. Hervieux