2023-02-21 16:54:52 by ambuda-bot
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6
the "Book of Examples of the Ancient Sages"(Buch der Beispiele
der alten Weisen). There is some reason to suspect that this was
translated from a lost Italian version, rather than directly from
the Latin. It was first published about 1480 and went rapidly
through edition after edition, so successfully did it appeal to the
public; it is said that more than 20 editions of it appeared within
less than 50 years of its first printing. It was also translated into
Danish, Icelandic, Dutch, and "Yiddish" (the popular dialect
current among North-European Jews).
John of Capua's Latin was also translated, directly, into
Spanish, Czech, and Italian. The Italian version (by one Doni,
1552) is of special interest to us, because from it was translated
the first English descendant of the Pañcatantra. This was made
by the celebrated Classical scholar Sir Thomas North. He called
it "The Morall Philosophie of Doni", which is a literal translation
of the name given to the Italian original by its author, who glori-
fied himself unduly by thus inserting his own name in the title.
North's English version was first published in 1570; a second
edition was called for in 1601; and recently the fine old text has
been attractively reissued in facsimile, under the editorship of
Joseph Jacobs (London, 1888). Relatively few English-speaking
people are aware, I believe, that during the lifetime of Shakespearo
English literature was enriched by a work which was nothing but
a sixth-generation descendant of the Sanskrit Pañcatantra, from
the Italian, from the Latin, from the Hebrew, from the Arabic,
from the Pahlavi, from the Sanskrit !
7
the "Book of Examples of the Ancient Sages"(Buch der Beispiele
der alten Weisen). There is some reason to suspect that this was
translated from a lost Italian version, rather than directly from
the Latin. It was first published about 1480 and went rapidly
through edition after edition, so successfully did it appeal to the
public; it is said that more than 20 editions of it appeared within
less than 50 years of its first printing. It was also translated into
Danish, Icelandic, Dutch, and "Yiddish" (the popular dialect
current among North-European Jews).
John of Capua's Latin was also translated, directly, into
Spanish, Czech, and Italian. The Italian version (by one Doni,
1552) is of special interest to us, because from it was translated
the first English descendant of the Pañcatantra. This was made
by the celebrated Classical scholar Sir Thomas North. He called
it "The Morall Philosophie of Doni", which is a literal translation
of the name given to the Italian original by its author, who glori-
fied himself unduly by thus inserting his own name in the title.
North's English version was first published in 1570; a second
edition was called for in 1601; and recently the fine old text has
been attractively reissued in facsimile, under the editorship of
Joseph Jacobs (London, 1888). Relatively few English-speaking
people are aware, I believe, that during the lifetime of Shakespearo
English literature was enriched by a work which was nothing but
a sixth-generation descendant of the Sanskrit Pañcatantra, from
the Italian, from the Latin, from the Hebrew, from the Arabic,
from the Pahlavi, from the Sanskrit !
7