Koie book
The Koie Book or Cows Book is an old Yiddish collection of fables published by Abraham ben Mattatijah bat Sheva in Verona in 1595 and represents an important work of Yiddish literature .
The book
The book has 67 pages, two of which have been lost (pages 26 and 27). Part of the text is also missing on the back of sheet 31 due to damage. The two missing leaves were replaced with leaves from Sefer Meshalim . 81 original and two woodcuts by Sefer Meshalim illustrate the book.
The title
Moshe N. Rosenfeld found the work, which had long been considered missing, in a private library. As he states in his explanation of the facsimile edition, he believes that the title of the work comes from a comparable fabulous work of non-Jewish origin. He does not provide any proof of this. Up to this point in time, nothing more was known of the work than its mention in bibliographies , of which the oldest known entry dates from 1680 . Shabbetai Bass recorded it as "Ku 'Buk" in his work Shiftei Jeshenim . This entry was included in all later bibliographies as no one was likely to have a copy of the original. So the error of reading the place of publication “Wern” as “Bern” instead of correctly as “Verona” could not be improved.
Comparison with the Sefer Meshalim
The stories of the cows book correspond to those of Sefer Meshalim as follows:
| Koie Buk | history | Sefer Meshalim |
|---|---|---|
| 1. story | Dog loses its piece of meat | 3rd story |
| 2nd story | Monkey and two children | 4th story |
| 3rd story | A fox and a stork | 1. story |
| 4th story | A raven and a piece of cheese | 2nd story |
| 5th story | A priest ... | 5th story |
| 6. story | A young and strong lion | 6. story |
| 7th story | Crow and peacock | 7th story |
| 8th story | A rooster says to hen | 8th story |
| 9. History | City mouse and big house | 9. History |
| 10. story | An old, sick lion | 10. story |
| 11. story | An old miller wanted to die | 11. story |
| 12th story | A man went to sow hemp | 12th story |
| 13. story | A cat and a lot of mice | 13. story |
| 14. story | A lion dies | 14. story |
| 15. story | A man has a good ass | 15. story |
| 16. story | A lion was sleeping in a forest | 16. story |
| 17th story | A wolf sits in court | 17th story |
| is missing | replaced by Pagina in the Sefer Meshalim | 18th story |
| is missing | replaced by Pagina in the Sefer Meshalim | 19th story |
| 20th story | A black raven | 20th story |
| 21. story | A man has a donkey in his stable | 21. story |
| 22. story | A gentleman and his dog | 22. story |
| 23. History * | A Jew who wanted to cross the field | 23rd story |
| 24. story | Lord and Partridge | 24. story |
| 25. story | Thief and dog | 25. story |
| 26th story | The farmer | 26th story |
| 27. story | The writer | 27. story |
| 28. story | Farmer and donkey | 28. story |
| 29. story | Shepherd, weasel and mouse | 29. story |
| 30. story | Farmer, dog and cow | 30. story |
| 31. story | Old man and merchants | 31. story |
| 32nd story | History in England | 32nd story |
| 33rd story | The host | 33rd story |
| 34th story | The rich and the poor | 34th story |
| 35th story | The king | 35th story |
| 36th story | The donkey mocks a horse | 36th story |
| 37th story | Thorn and fir tree |
Note: * partially lost due to damage to sheet 31
Comparison of the woodcuts
The woodcuts of Koie Buk and Sefer Meshalim illustrating the fables are not identical, but they are very similar. It seems that Moshe b'r Eliezer Wallich modeled the woodcuts in his work on those of Koie Buk . In comparison, his cuts are all mirror-inverted.
differences
Even if the stories and woodcuts of both works are similar, one can speak of two different works. In the fifth story of the Koie Buk there is talk of a "Pfaff". The Sefer Meshalim simply speaks of a man. The tenth story speaks of the priest's blessing (P.15, recto), while Wallich only speaks of the blessing in general (P.13, verso). Moshe b'r Wallich has also corrected mistakes. In Koie Buk, for example, the woodcuts of the 23rd and 22nd story are swapped. In Sefer Meshalim this is corrected. Towards the end, Mattitja Bat Sheva wants the reader to know "another game", which is missing in the Sefer Meshalim .