Avianus

Avianus: the fox and the dog (lat.). 10th century, parchment. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (BNF), Ms na lat. 1332 f. 39

Avianus , Avian for short , was a Roman poet who copied Greek fables in Latin elegiac distiches . He lived around AD 400

plant

A complete work of 42 fables has survived, the majority of which are based on the Greek collection of Babrios . The work is preceded by a dedication epistle in prose, in which Avianus mentions Babrios as one of his predecessors, but states that he wrote his adaptation based on a model written “in uneducated Latin” (“fabulas ... rudi latinitate compositas”). He dedicates his work to a Theodosius, to whom he recognizes outstanding education in both Greek and Latin literature and who has mostly been identified with the writer Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius , but sometimes also with one of the emperors named Theodosius . According to the dedication letter, the work is intended to entertain the reader, dispel his worries, sharpen his mind and give him insight into the order of all living things, which results as "sententia" from the actions of plants and animals endowed with human language and human characteristics.

reception

The fabulae Aviani poetae , inspired by Aesop , achieved great popularity in the Middle Ages as textbooks for elementary Latin lessons and for studying grammar and rhetoric as part of the Artes Liberales . 137 manuscripts are known, the oldest of which represent two different text traditions contaminated in the later manuscripts. There are several adaptations or partial adaptations in the vernacular, such as an Anglo-Norman verse adaptation of 8 fables from the end of the 12th century ( Avionnet de York ), a complete French verse adaptation of Avianus and other Latin fables, which originated in the first half of the 14th century and in her second editorial office Johanna von Burgund , the wife of Philip VI. von France , was dedicated ( Isopet I de Paris ), as well as a Latin and German adaptation which the Ulm Heinrich Steinhöwel published as part of his collection of fables Aesopus (1466-77), and which in turn was reprinted in French by Julien Macho ( Lyon 1480, reprinted several times).

Some of the Fuchs fables collected in the fabulae Aviani poeta were adopted in the middle of the 12th century in the Latin Ysengrimus and also in the old French novel de Renart (written between approx. 1170 and 1250), written by unknown authors , in which the Mythical animals were endowed with their names that have been handed down to this day. As templates, including for the Dutch epic Van den vos Reynaerde , these works ensured the European tradition of the ancient sources in the Reineke Fuchs .

Text editions and literature

Michael Baldzuhn: School Books in the Trivium of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age. The writing of lessons in the history of texts and traditions of the 'Fabulae' Avians and the German 'Disticha Catonis' . De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2009 (sources and research on literary and cultural history 44.1 + 2 [278.1 + 2])
Robinson Ellis (Ed.): The fables of Avianus . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1887. (Reprint: Olms, Hildesheim 1966)
Johannes Irmscher (ed.): Ancient fables. Greek beginnings, Aesop, fables in Roman literature, Phaedrus, Babrios, Romulus, Avian, Ignatios Diakonos . Aufbau-Verl., Berlin (East) 1978.
Jochem Küppers : The Fables of Avian. Studies on the representation and narration of late antique fable poetry . Habelt, Bonn 1977.

Web links

Wikisource: Avianus - Sources and full texts

personal data
SURNAME	Avianus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Roman poet (around 400 AD)
DATE OF BIRTH	4th century
DATE OF DEATH	4th century or 5th century