INTRODUCTION
xxi
his book[1] (Brescia, 1491?). Thus it is clear
that illustrations formed one of the attractions of the Hebrew version of the Fables of Bidpai, and, though we have them no longer, we have a list of them inserted in their proper places in the unique MS., and in M. Derenbourg's excellent edition of it. Now, on comparing the list with those actually given in the editio princeps of the Latin version, which was made from the Hebrew, a remarkable result appears. I cannot display this better than by giving for a few of the chapters in parallel columns a translation of the list of illustrations referred to in the Hebrew text, and an account of the plates which are actually given in the first edition of the Directorium, as well as in the first German and Spanish versions, which have the same plates. [2]
- ↑ The British Museum possesses a unique copy of this, with seventy-one illustrations, thirty-four of which are of animals. On fol. 18b is one of two jackals, which might easily pass for Kalila and Dimna.
- ↑ Benfey has shown (Orient and Occident, i. 165) that the plates were originally made for the German, as it has seven more than the Latin, which issued from the same press.