Ysopu: A Spanish Steinhowel from 1521

Libro del sabio [et] clarissimo fabulador Ysopu as published in 1521 (a Spanish version of Steinhowel's Aesop). You can use this link to browse posts from this book, and you will find the table of contents below.

online source: Library of Congress

You can also see a hand-colored version from 1477 at the University of Munich Digital Library, and also a black-and-white version from 1479. The Spanish artist is clearly following the earlier Steinhowel tradition, but with some lovely innovations of their own!

The way I'm going to use this illustrated Aesop is to accompany texts from Caxton's Aesop of 1484, along with my own modernization of Caxton's text. I think this will be a fun way to introduce people to Caxton's Aesop, while also bringing the beautiful images from this book into play. You can find Caxton's text in the Joseph Jacobs edition at the Internet Archive; the modernizations are my own. To keep the entries brief, I am focusing just on the story, leaving out the promythium and epimythium (i.e. the "morals of the stories"), but you can find all of that in Jacobs' book.

Meanwhile, if you want to read the Renaissance Spanish text, just check out the  Library of Congress online edition of the book!

These are the fable illustrations I have used from this book, accompanying the fable from Caxton's Aesop:

1.04. THE DOG AND THE SHEEP.

1.09. THE TWO DOGS.

The Two Dogs

1.09. THE TWO DOGS. There was a dog who was about to give birth to a litter of puppies and came to the house of another dog and asked her with sweet and fair words to lend her a place where she could give birth to her puppies. And the other loaned her her bed and her house, wanting to do a kindness. And when the dog had given birth to her puppies, the good dog said to the other that it was time to go and leave her house. And then the dog and her young pups attacked the other dog and so threw her out of her own house.
Caxton: Ther was a bytche whiche wold lyttre and be delyuerd of her lytyl dogges / and came to the hows of another bytche / & prayd her by swete and fayre wordes that she wold lene to her a place for to lyttre her lytyll dogges / And this other lend to her / her bed and her hows wenynge to doo wel / And whan the bytche had lyttred her lytel dogges / the good bytche sayd to the other / that it was tyme that she shold goo and departe oute of her / And thenne the bytche and her yonge dogges ranne vpon the other / and boot and casted her oute of her owne hows. [more info]

The Dog and the Sheep

1.04. THE DOG AND THE SHEEP.  Once upon a time there was a Dog who demanded that a Sheep give back a loaf of bread that she had borrowed from him. And the Sheep answered that she had never borrowed anything from him. The Dog took the Sheep to court. And because the Sheep denied the debt, the Dog came up with false witnesses: the Wolf, the Kite, and the Hawk. And when these witnesses were examined and heard, the Wolf said to the judge, "I certainly remember well that the Dog loaned her a loaf of bread." And the Kite went and said, "I was there when she took it!" And the Hawk said to the Sheep, "Come on, why do you deny that you took it?" And so the poor Sheep was defeated, and the judge commanded that she pay the Dog, so before the winter she sold her fleece and wool to pay for something she never took. And thus was the poor Sheep plundered.
Caxton: Somtyme was a dogge / whiche demaunded of a sheep a loof of brede that she had borowed of hym / And the sheep ansuerd that neuer she had none of hym / The dogge made her to come before the Iuge / And by cause the sheep denyed the dette / the dogge prouysed and broughte with hym fals wytnes / that is to wete the wulf / the mylan & the sparhawk / And whanne these wytnes shold be examyned and herd / the wulf sayd to the Iuge / I am certayne & me remembreth wel / that the dogge lend to her a loof of brede And the Myllan went and sayd / she receyued hit presente my persone / And the sperowhawk sayd to the sheep / Come hyder why denyest thow that whiche thow hast take and receyued / And thus was the poure sheep vanquysshed / And thenne the Iuge commaunded to her that she shold paye the dogge / wherfore she sold awey before the wynter her flees and wulle for to paye that / that she neuer had / And thus was the poure sheep despoylled. [more info]