Le Favole Di Fedro. Tradotte Da Monsig. Tommaso Azzochi

Hardcover. ix + 56 pp. Original printed boards with cover title and publisher’s text in decorative frame. Ink name, in contemporary 19th c. hand, on front pastedown; boards soiled and very much rubbed; binding strip partially detached but contents still still firmly in place, except for partial loosening of first signature; some marginal soiling and foxing; but generally a bright interior with several pages still unopened. These are the fables of Fedro, a 1st century Roman slave of Macedonian origin, who worked in the tradition of Aesop. They are here translated into Italian prose by Azzocchi, with the original Latin at the foot of each page. Cover title reads: Le Favole di Fedro Volgarizzate (i.e. in the vulgar tongue, meaning in the national language as distinct from Latin). Laid in, is a half-sheet in copperplate hand, dated Toronto, Feb. 18, 1857, which appears to be a corrected Latin exercise. We have been unable to determine whether the exercise– which, though also dealing with animals, is religious in nature– has any direct connection with the contents of the book. Since the name on the sheet and the name on the front pastedown are different, and since the name on the front pastedown appears to be preceded by a cross, it may be that the book was used as a resource by a Latin teacher in a Catholic seminary and that the exercise is by one of his students. Azzocchi, it should not be forgotten, was a “Monseigneur”, and this volume of fables is dedicated to a Cardinal Giacomo Giustiniani.