Irenaeus Fabula 26. De Silva et Rustico

I'm embarking on a new Latin fable project here at the Latin Via Fables blog: digitizing the 300 fables in the Mithologica sacro-profana, seu florilegium fabularum by P. Irenaeus, published in 1666, which has recently become available at GoogleBooks. For a complete index of the fables in the book, with links to the fables I've digitized so far, check out the Aesopus wiki page at Aesopus.PBwiki.com.

Today's fable is De Silva et Rustico, the story of the tree that gave a man wood to make a handle for his axe. In Perry's indexing system, this is Perry 302.

To make reading the fable easier, I've provided a segmented version of the story below.

Quo tempore etiam arboribus et inanimis suus sermo, venit ad Silvam Rusticus, petitum ab ea ut liceret de suis lignis aptare manubria securi et asciae. Annuit illa libens, minime penetrans cuinam usui aut damno cederet. Sed ubi sensit aptata in suammet perniciem instrumenta, deiici quercus annosas, exscindi frondes, truncos secari, ligna comminui, tum demum coepit sero paenitere suae facilitatis et dicere: Quid feci insipiens? In propriam ruinam arma ministravi! Indicat vitium satis frequens et commune incautae mortalitatis, in suam saepe perniciem servientis.

Quo tempore
etiam arboribus et inanimis
suus sermo,
venit ad Silvam Rusticus,
petitum ab ea
ut liceret
de suis lignis
aptare manubria
securi et asciae.
Annuit illa libens,
minime penetrans
cuinam usui aut damno cederet.
Sed ubi sensit
aptata
in suammet perniciem
instrumenta,
deiici quercus annosas,
exscindi frondes,
truncos secari,
ligna comminui,
tum demum coepit
sero paenitere suae facilitatis
et dicere:
Quid feci insipiens?
In propriam ruinam arma ministravi!
Indicat
vitium
satis frequens et commune
incautae mortalitatis,
in suam saepe perniciem
servientis.


Here's an illustration for the fable (image source) by the great artist and book illustrator Walter Crane:

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Aesop's Fables in Latin now available at Amazon.com.