BMCR 2009.06.05: ALSO SEEN: Jennings on Fansa, Tierisch moralisch. Die Welt der Fabel in Orient und Okzident. Begleitschrift zur Sonderausstellung des Landesmuseums Natur und Mensch Oldenburg vom 22. Februar bis zum 01. Juni 2009. (Schriftenreihe des Landesmuseums Natur und Mensch, Heft 63)

ALSO SEEN: Mamoun Fansa (ed.), Tierisch moralisch. Die Welt der Fabel
in Orient und Okzident. Begleitschrift zur Sonderausstellung des
Landesmuseums Natur und Mensch Oldenburg vom 22. Februar bis zum 01.
Juni 2009. (Schriftenreihe des Landesmuseums Natur und Mensch, Heft
63).  Wiesbaden:  Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2009.  Pp. 315.  ISBN
9783895006630.  EUR 24.90.

Reviewed by Victoria Jennings, Visiting Research Fellow (Classics),
University of Adelaide ([email protected])
-------------------------------
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[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]

This gorgeous book accompanies an exhibition in Oldenburg on animal
fables and other didactic narratives. Tierisch moralisch is more than a
catalogue. The book begins with sixteen very brief but copiously
illustrated chapters examining animal fable from antiquity to the
twenty-first century in European and Near Eastern culture (17-131); two
sections follow, contextualizing the 'Geisteswelt' of the exhibition's
areas of special interest in terms of their writing cultures, music,
and built environment. These areas are the Near East from the tenth to
fifteenth centuries (132-165) and Europe from the fourteenth to
sixteenth centuries (168-225). Finally, there is an illustrated
catalogue of the exhibition (226-300) and a bibliography (301-316).

Fable--and particularly animal fable--is remarkable for its longevity
and universal appeal. This volume is predominantly aimed at a general
audience desirous of finding out a little more about fables and the
worlds which produced them. It is hardly surprising that it is not a
theory-heavy celebration of difference but rather pushes what one
contributor terms the 'Transkulturalitaet der Fabel', its 'Weltsprache
Moral' (214) -- a sort of 'globalization' of fundamental wisdom,
constantly renewed and relevant. Nevertheless, the  student of
reception will appreciate the wealth of riches brought together in one
volume, and for the classicist there are several chapters of interest,
particularly with regard to comparative fable traditions.

In one of the longer chapters, Wolfgang Achnitz offers an overview of
the characteristics of the 'polygenetisch' fable in eastern and western
contexts; for instance, a shared characteristic is fable's
timeless/placeless nature (facilitated by having animal
protagonists[[1]]). Joachim Marzahn notes parallels between the
Mesopotamian and Aesopic traditions. Christian E. Loeben offers a
delightfully illustrated overview of Egyptian animal narratives. Niklas
Holzberg briefly summarizes the Aesopic tradition. These overviews
certainly whet the appetite for more.

It is welcome to find Kalilah and Dimnah, poster child for the
complexities of east/west transmission, getting a good deal of
attention (directly in four chapters and indirectly in a number of
others; there are also some exceptional plates). It is well represented
in the catalogue, along with the Pan~catantra. I would also recommend
Carsten Ritzau's chapter -- a richly illustrated and fact-filled
zoological exploration of the animals of fable.

In the catalogue, classical antiquity (represented by casts, writing
implements and a fox on a lamp) receives less attention than Egypt,
Mesopotamia, India and the Near East. The real gems are in the sections
on reception: the eleventh century Limoges MS of Ademar's Aesop, a
selection of Steinhoewel Aesops, Martin Luther's Fabeln, and much more.
All items in the catalogue are illustrated in colour and have an
explanatory paragraph or two.

By the time this notice appears, the 'Tierisch moralisch' exhibition
will likely have closed. Judging by this beautifully produced (and
well-priced) volume, this exhibition was a visually and educationally
satisfying introduction to the texts and objects of the fable-producing
lands.[[2]]

INHALTSVERZEICHNIS
Mamoun Fansa and Eckhard Grunewald: Vorwort

GESCHICHTE DER FABEL
Wolfgang Achnitz: Die Fabel--Merkmale einer Gattung in Orient und
Okzident (17-28)
Joachim Marzahn: Fabeln--Altorientalische Vorlaeufer (29-32)
Christian E. Loeben: Tiergeschichten und Fabeln im alten Aegypten
(33-40)
Niklas Holzberg: Aesop und die griechisch-roemische Fabeltradition
(41-3)
Birgit Middendorp: Ibn al-Muqaffa' und die orientalische Fabeltradition
(44-7)
Goerge K. Hasselhoff: Die hebraeischen Uebertragungen von Kalila
wa-Dimna (48-50)
Goerge K. Hasselhoff: Die lateinischen Uebertragungen von Kalila
wa-Dimna (51-3)
Sabine Obermaier: Das Buch der Beispiele der alten Weisen Antons von
Pforr (54-6)
Wolfgang Achnitz: Kurze Geschichte der Fabel im deutschsprachigen
Mittelalter (57-64)
Eckhard Grunewald: Jean de La Fontaine (65-8)
Eckhard Grunewald: Die Fabel der Aufklaerungszeit (69-72)
Eckhard Grunewald: Die Fabel im 19. Jahrhundert (73-7)
Eckhard Grunewald and Birgit Middendorp: Die Fabel im 20./21.
Jahrhundert (78-82)

TIERE IN DEN FABELN
Carsten Ritzau: Tierische Darsteller--Die Akteure in Fabeln aus
zoologischer Sicht (85-108)

KALILA UND DIMNA
Karen Aydin and Birgit Middendorp: Ibn al-Muqaffa's Kalila wa-Dimna und
der Codex arabicus 616 der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek Muenchen
(111-15)
Detlev Quintern: Miniaturmalerei und Malschulen im Orient (116-31)

GEISTESWELT DES ORIENTS VOM 10. BIS 15. JAHRHUNDERT
Birgit Middendorp: Das vornehmste aller Gewerbe: Die Schreibkunst
(134-42)
Regula Forster: Arabische Prosa--Literatur und Lebenskunst (143-51)
Gisela Helmecke: Wohnkultur im Orient (152-8)
Andrea Woerner and Gerhard Apfelauer: Arabische Musik (159-65)

GEISTESWELT EUROPAS VOM 14. BIS 16. JAHRHUNDERT
Kristina Nowak: Bewegte Zeiten--Krisen, Krankheiten und Entdeckungen
des 14. bis 16. Jahrhunderts (168-74)
Kristina Nowak: Vom Kloster in die Stadt--Literatur und Bildung im
Mittelalter (175-82)
Michael Oberweis: Die drucktechnischen Erfindungen Johannes Gutenbergs
und ihre Verbreitung bis zur Reformationszeit (183-95)
Kristina Nowak: Stadtluft macht frei binnen Jahr und Tag--Staedtische
Wohnkultur im Spaetmittelalter (196-204)
Annette Otterstedt: Von Kuehen und Katzen--Tier und Musikinstrument
(205-12)

WELTSPRACHE MORAL
Detlev Quintern: Weltsprache Moral--Transkulturalitaet der Fabel
(214-25)

Katalog
Quellen- und Literaturverzeichnis
------------------
Notes:


1.   Celia del Moral questions the complacency with which we regard
similar animals in different cultures. See "La fa/bula de animales en
la literatura a/rabe cla/sica" 185-207 in Pere/z Jime/nez, A. and Cruz
Andreotti, G. edd. "Y asi/ dijo la zorra". La Tradicio/n Fabuli/stica
en los Pueblos del Mediterra/neo. Madrid-Mlaga: Ediciones Cla/sicas &
Charta Antiqua, 2002.

2.   Exhibition website: Tierisch moralisch. Die Welt der Fabel in
Orient und Okzident (http://www.tierisch-moralisch.naturundmensch.de/)
. Another publication (not seen) is associated with the exhibition:
Mamoun Fansa and Eckhard Grunewald (edd.). Von listigen Schakalen und
toerichten Kamelen: die Fabel in Orient und Okzident:
wissenschaftliches Kolloquium im Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch
Oldenburg zur Vorbereitung der Ausstellung "Tierisch moralisch. Die
Welt der Fabel in Orient und Okzident" am 22. und 23. November 2007.
Schriftenreihe des Landesmuseums fuer Natur und Mensch Oldenburg;
Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 2008.