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Aesop's Fables

This is the second Augsburg edition of the Fables of Aesop, translated from Latin into German by Heinrich Steinhöwel. It is illustrated with 208 woodcuts, cut in the Augsburg style, which is characterized by thick contour lines outlining the figures, a reliance on white space rather than highly detailed embellishment to decorate the image, and little background or landscape to create perspective. The publishing history of the Fables is extensive. Over 150 separate editions of the work were printed between 1465 and 1501. Little is known of Aesop’s life, but he is believed to have been a slave who lived during the sixth century BC. He himself did not write down the fables. They became part of the oral tradition of storytelling and were eventually recorded by his contemporaries. The uncomplicated moral lessons that are related in Aesop’s Fables have captured the imagination of generations of artists, who have used his stories as a way to teach moral lessons to children of all cultures and nationalities.