A counterfeit edition of a moralising anthology of Latin fables compiled from both classical and Renaissance sources. The collection includes stories attributed to or adapted from authors such as Aulus Gellius, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Hadrianus Barlandus, Pliny the Elder, Angelo Poliziano, Petrus Crinitus, and others, along with the Life of Aesop excerpted from Maximus Planudes. Each fable is presented in Latin prose, typically followed by a brief moral (Morale) distilling the ethical message of the story. Intended primarily for moral instruction and Latin education, such collections were common in Renaissance humanist curricula, often printed in centres such as Strasbourg ("libera Argentina") or Basel during the 15th-17th centuries. The present edition is of Dutch origin and, in addition to contributions by Gulielmus Goudanus, Hadrianus Barlandus, and Erasmus, named on the title page, it also includes a letter by Martinus Dorpius and a hendecasyllabic poem composed by Petrus Aegidius.
As a counterfeit, it closely follows the Matthias Schürer edition of 1515, even reproducing the title border almost identically. However, it was likely not published by Schürer himself, as he would not have misspelt the names of Politianus and Campanus on the title page. There are also grammatical differences between the two versions, with the present edition being more accurate and employing a more standard Classical Latin than the Schürer version. Proctor and the BMC STC German attribute the book, albeit with some doubt, to the press of Johann Prüss the Younger, dating it to around 1516.
With manuscript annotations in the margins and modern underlining of the word "Aesopi" on the title page. The boards are slightly rubbed, with some loss of material on the back. The work is occasionally foxed, the edges of the leaves are browned and occasionally frayed, a few small ink stains on some of the leaves,minor water staining in the margins of the last few leaves. Otherwise in good condition. Bibl. Belgica A156; BM STC German p. 6; not in Adams; Bezzel; de Reuck; cf. for the edition by Schürer: Proctor 10265; Vander Haeghen II, 3.