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Aesop

(Encyclopedia)Aesop ēˈsəp, ēˈsŏp [key], legendary Greek fabulist. According to Herodotus, he was a slave who lived in Samos in the 6th cent. b.c. and eventually was freed by his master. Other accounts associa...

Babrius

(Encyclopedia)Babrius bāˈbrēəs [key], fl. 2d cent.?, Greek fabulist, versifier of the fables of Aesop. Many of the medieval prose collections of Aesop were based on Babrius. He may have been a Hellenized Roman....

Phaedrus

(Encyclopedia)Phaedrus fēˈdrəs [key], fl. 1st cent. a.d., Latin writer, a Thracian slave, possibly a freedman of Augustus. He wrote fables in verse based largely on those of Aesop. The prose collections of fable...

Berekhiah ben Natronai ha-Nakdan

(Encyclopedia)Berekhiah ben Natronai ha-Nakdan bĕrəkīˈə bĕn nätrōnīˈ hä-näkˈdän [key], fl. 12th or 13th cent., French Jewish fabulist, biblical commentator, philosopher, grammarian, and translator. Hi...

Planudes Maximus

(Encyclopedia)Planudes Maximus pləno͞oˈdēz măkˈsĭməs [key] or Maximus Planudes, c.1260–c.1330, Byzantine scholar, an exceptionally learned monk. His edition of the Greek Anthology was long the standard. H...

Krylov, Ivan Andreyevich

(Encyclopedia)Krylov, Ivan Andreyevich ēvänˈ əndrāˈəvĭch krĭlôfˈ [key], 1769–1844, Russian fabulist. Some of his more than 200 fables were adapted from Aesop and La Fontaine, but most were original. A ...

Tenniel, Sir John

(Encyclopedia)Tenniel, Sir John tĕnˈyəl [key], 1820–1914, English caricaturist and illustrator. He became well known for his original and good-humored political cartoons in Punch, with which he was associated ...

Henryson, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Henryson, Robert, c.1425–c.1506, Scottish poet. It is thought that he was a schoolmaster at Dunfermline Abbey. His principal poem is The Testament of Cresseid, which was written as a harshly moral e...

Saltykov-Shchedrin, Mikhail Evgrafovich

(Encyclopedia)Saltykov-Shchedrin, Mikhail Evgrafovich mēkhəyēlˈ yĭvgräˈfəvĭch sälˈtĭkôf-shchĕˈdrēn [key], 1826–89, Russian novelist and satirist. Saltykov-Shchedrin was a master of the satirical s...

Bewick, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Bewick, Thomas byo͞oˈĭk [key], 1753–1828, English wood engraver. Bewick pioneered in the revival of original wood engraving. Among his famous early works are his illustrations for John Gay's Fabl...

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