Caterina Mordeglia, Animali sui banchi di scuola: le favole dello pseudo-Dositeo (ms. Paris, BnF, lat. 6503)

The collection of fables of the pseudo-Dositheus, which is the object of Mordeglia's book, is part of the Hermeneumata Pseudodositheana (HP). Mordeglia points her attention to the fables appearing only in two independent versions of the HP: the Fragmentum Parisinum, and the Leidensis recensio.The author underlines the linguistic superiority, both in its syntactic and lexical aspects, of the FP redaction over RL and the relevance of FP in the reconstruction of the development of the fable genre in the Western milieu, due to the strong similarities it has with the Romulus fable collection.The author fully achieves the goal to show the value of the FP fables and their relevant position for reconstructing the development of the genre in the Latin West, underlines the importance of the bilingual papyrus witnesses of the Aesopic fables and provides a clear and accurate translation of the HP animal fables.Michel Pastoureau's preface to the volume, where the Physiologus tradition is mentioned, shows that the educational function of animal stories is not a prerogative of the fable. In addition to lingua et mores animals can also teach the Christian doctrine.