The document summarizes the main editions of Aesop's Fables throughout history from 1484 to 1998. It notes William Caxton's first edition in 1484 containing 167 fables and the most recent edition by Olivia and Robert Temple in 1998 containing 350 fables. Several other prominent editions are mentioned, including translations and versions by William Barrett, Roger L'Estrange, Samuel Croxall, Thomas James, George Fyler Townsend, and Joseph Jacobs between 1639 and 1967.

2. The Main Editions of Aesop's Fables
 William Caxton's Subtyl Historyes and Fables of Esope: 12 editions between 1484 and
1676, with 167 fables.
 William Barrett's Fables of Aesop, With His Whole Life: 18 editions between 1639 and
1721, with 213 fables.
 Roger L'Estrange's Fables of Aesop and other Eminent Mythologists: nine editions
between 1692 and 1740, with 500 fables.
 The Rev. Samuel Croxall's Fables of Aesop and Others: 47 editions between 1722 and
1865, with 196 fables.
 The Rev. Thomas James's Aesop's Fables: A New Version: 30 editions between 1848
and 1912, with 203 fables.
 The Rev. George Fyler Townsend's Three Hundred Aesop's Fables (later, Three
Hundred Fifty): 20 editions between 1867 and 1911.
 Joseph Jacobs's The Fables of Aesop: 33 editions between 1894 and 1967, with 82
fables.
 V.S. Vernon Jones's Aesop's Fables: 18 editions between 1912 and 1994, with 284
fables.
 Olivia and Robert Temple's The Complete Fables: published in 1998 with 350 fables.

3. Aesop 620 B.C.E. – 560 B.C.E.
 The first known use of Aesop’s Fables printed for
a children’s audience was when Lorenzo De
Medici commissioned a special volume of Aesop’s
Fables for his young son Piero in 1480.

4. Interesting Quotes about
Aesop’s Fables
 According to “Aesop’s Fables for Adults,” by
Kenneth Cooper, “As an adult reader renews his
acquaintance with the fables, he soon discovers
that in Aesop’s world, virtue by no means always
reaped it’s just reward.” (144)
 Robert Temple and his wife Olivia published, “The
Complete Fables” in 1998 after they found “some
ribald original tales they found in a 1927 Greek-
language text.” (“Aesop”)

5. The Man and the Serpent
In this fable a man steps on the tail of a snake and
the snake strikes a mortal blow. The father of the
man then chops off the tail of the snake and for
revenge the snake starts killing the father’s cattle.
The father then wants to agree to a truce to which
the snake say’s neither would be able to forgive.
The moral of the story is “injuries may be forgiven
but not forgotten,” sounds more like don’t forgive
and continue to hold a grudge.

6. The Fox and the Crane
A fox invites a crane over for dinner and serves the
crane food on a shallow dish making it very difficult
for the crane to eat. To get back at the fox the crane
invites the fox over and puts his dinner in a long jar
making it impossible for the fox to get to the food.
The moral of the story could be interpreted as treat
people like you want to be treated but it seems to
me like this fable is teaching just the opposite;
revenge.

7. Lloyd W. Daly, author of Aesop without
Morals: The Famous Fables and a Life of
Aesop (1961)
“Aesopic fables have been pap for children in
schools for so many hundreds of years that it is
perhaps difficult to think of them in any other light,
but the cynical vein of the stories themselves runs
so strong that it must be obvious they were not
intended for the education of youth.” (qtd. in
“Aesop’s Fables”)

8. Works Cited
Aesop. “Aesop's Fables.” n.p.: Project Gutenberg, n.d. eBook Collection
(EBSCOhost). Web. 7 Dec. 2012.
Aesop. “Aesop's Fables Online Collection.” John R. Long. Star Systems.
2011. Web. 7 Dec. 2012.
“Aesop.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 7
Dec. 2012
“Aesops Fables.” Children’s Literature Review. Ed. Tom Burns. Vol. 115.
Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 Dec. 2012.
Cooper, Kenneth. “Aesop’s Fables for Adults.” Peabody Journal of
Education. Vol. 33. No. 3 (Nov. 1955). 143-147. Web. 7 Dec.
2012.
"The Main Editions Of Aesop's Fables." Chronicle Of Higher Education
54.23 (2008): B16. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 Dec.
2012.
Winder, Robert. “Aesop: The Complete Fables.” New Statesman [1996]6
Mar. 1998: 44+. Literature Resource Center. Web 7 Dec. 2012.