Miniatures of the Fables of Bidpai and of the Life of Aesop in the Pierpont Morgan Library

Among the treasures in the manuscript section of The Pierpont Morgan Library is a collection of ancient folk-tales (MS 397) written in a Greek script which has been placed and dated as South Italian of the late tenth century. 1 The following texts are found on its one hundred and twelve folios: a fragment of the Fables of Bidpai, or Kalilah and Dimnah, fols. 1 r -7 v ;Physiologus, 2 fols. 8 r -21 v ; Life of Aesop, fols. 22 r -67 v ; two hundred and twenty-six fables of Aesop, fols. 67 v -108 r ; thirty-one of the fables of Babrius, 3 fols. 108 r -112 v ; seven of the "witty sayings" ( ) from the Philogelos of Hierocles and Philagrios, 4 fol. 112 v . Of these texts, only the Bidpai fables and the Life of Aesop are illustrated.