Caxton’s Aesop

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Aesop’s fables, along with a body of other folktales that became attached to them, were traditional popular lore in the Middle Ages and a natural choice for early printing. William Caxton, who established his press in Westminster in 1476, printed his English translation of the fables in 1483–84 from the largest collection then available. The complete Caxton’s Aesop is presented here in an attractively illustrated scholarly edition. Robert Lenaghan’s introduction gives the known historical background of the Caxton fables and their sources, and discusses the Aesopic fable in the Middle Ages.