Stoa: Disticha in omnes fabulas Ovidii

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Disticha in omnes fabulas P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoseon by G. F. Quintianus Stoa (1514)

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This retells the stories from Ovid's Metamorphoses in the form of distichs. For example, here is the death of Pentheus:

Penthea, quid lacerat mater? lacerantque sorores;
Non aprum violant, Penthea sed feriunt.

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Catonis Disticha Moralia et Lilii Monita Paedagogica

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Catonis Disticha Moralia et Lilii Monita Paedagogica by John Stirling (1734)

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Here is a description of the book from its title page: "Cato's Moral Distichs and Lily's Paedagogical Admonitions; viz. The Words of the Author placed according to their Grammatical Construction, in the lower Part of the Page. An Alphabetical Vocabulary of all the Words, shewing their Parts of Speech, and Signification. The Themes of the Verbs with their Government. A TABLE of Scanning, containing all the possible Variations of Hexameter and Pentameter Verses, by which every Line of the Author may be Scanned. Lastly, The Rhetorical Figures are placed at the Bottom of each Page as they occur." The book was prepared for the students of St. Andrew's School in Holbourn. Price: stitched, 9 pence; bound, 1 shilling.


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La Faye: Breviarium Saeculare Universae Historiae

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Breviarium Saeculare Universae Historiae by Jean de La Faye (1672)

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The book presents a history of world told in the form of distichs, blending Biblical and pagan legends. For example:
Liberat Aegyptum Ioseph. Iunonius Argus
Servat Io. Docuit tristis aratra Ceres.
The effect is quite weird but intriguing!


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Appendini: Disticha

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Disticha by Urbano Appendini (1834)

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This Urbano Appendini is the brother of Francesco Maria Appendini. The book is divided into different sections: de educatione religiosa, de educatione physica, de educatione intellectuali, and de educatione sociali.



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Fabricius: Poetae Singulis Distichis Descripti

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Poetae Singulis Distichis Descripti by Georg Fabricius et al. (1546)

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The book offers up distichs on the Greek and Roman poets and philosophers, as well as "Germani aliquot celebres." There are also distichs for each of the Muses, Greek and Roman generals - all kinds of fun stuff.



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Bachot: Fasti Christiani

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Fasti Christiani by Jean Bachot (1624)

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As the subtitle explains, this is a "Pantheon quingentis in omnes sanctos distichis cum commentariis ornatum." The commentaries are quite long, sometimes running to a couple of pages, in addition to the distich for the saints and other religious holidays, who are arranged according to the holiday calendar.



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Nihus: Epigrammata Disticha

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Epigrammata Disticha by Barthold Nihus (1642)

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This book contains distichs from a wide variety of Latin authors, both classical and neo-Latin. The distichs are organized into books; Book 1 contains distichs from the classical authors, Book 2 contains Italian poets, Book 3 French, Book 4 Spanish and Portuguese, Book 5 Belgian, Book 6 English and Scottish, Book 7 Polish, Book 8 Hungarian, Book 9 German, Book 10 contains others.



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Fanelli: Vagientis Pueritiae Lusus

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Vagientis Pueritiae Lusus by Caesar Fanelli (1685)

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This collection of epigrams contains quite a few distichs, too!



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Diotallevus: Epigrammata

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Epigrammata edited by Vincentius Basilius Diotallevus (1846)

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As the subtitle explains: Epigrammata moralia et encomiastica in usum studiosae juventutis. Diotallevus has created an anthology with epigrams from various authors; the author of each epigram is identified. This is "Liber Secundus" - I have not been able to find the first volume at GoogleBooks.



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Pignewart: Cato Bernardinus

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Cato Bernardinus edited by Jean Pignewart (1624)

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The book contains the poetry of Bernardinus Antonius Cato Urbinas, "sententiae valde morales, piae, et sacrae, singulis distichis distinctae continentur."



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Alard: Epitome Biblica

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Epitome Biblica by Wilhelm Alard (1599)

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In this ingenious book, each chapter of the Bible has been rendered with a single Latin distich. For example, here is Matthew, Chapter 8:
Aegrotos sanat; ventos compescit, et aequor
Christus; ab obsessis Daemonas ire iubet.


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Aegidius: Sententiae Vere Aureae

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Sententiae Vere Aureae by Aegidius (1534)

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As the book's title explains: Sententiae vere Aureae sancti Patris Aegidii Assisinatis, omnibus ad Christianam perfectionem aspirantibus utilissimae. Aegidius (Giles) of Assisi was one of the companions of Saint Francis. You can read more about him in this Wikipedia article. His "dicta" were collected during his lifetime and issued in Latin, as well as being translated into other languages. You can find the The Golden Words of the Blessed Brother Giles (an English version published in 1907) here at GoogleBooks.



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Vaillant: Fasti Sacri

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Fasti Sacri by Hugo Vaillant (1674)

• Vol 1: GoogleBooks - GoogleBookstore
• Vol 2: GoogleBooks - GoogleBookstore

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This book contains epigrams for all the days of the church calendar, divided into two books. The epigrams are not long, and a few of them are distichs!



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Gilbertus: Tetrastichorum in Fabulas Aesopicas XII

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Tetrastichorum in Fabulas Aesopicas XII by Christianus Gilbertus (1690)

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This remarkable little book contains 12 fables of Aesop in Greek tetrastichs which are then rendered into Latin verse, with each fable told in eight different meters: iambic, scazons, trochaic, hexameters, choriambic, hendecasyllables, Sapphic, and anapests. Amazing!



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Ellis: The Fables of Avianus

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The Fables of Avianus edited by Robinson Ellis (1887)

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This is an excellent edition of the verse fables of Avianus with a lengthy introduction and detailed notes by Robinson Ellis.



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White: Selections from Ovid's Fasti and Epistles

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Selections from Ovid's Fasti and Epistles by J.T. White (1884)

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The selections include: Cacus ab Alcide Interfectus, Gabii Tarquinio Superbo Traditi, Gentis Fabiae Clades, Arion et Delphin, Anna Perenna, Persephone Rapta, Penelope Ulyssi, and Ariadne Theseo. There is a detailed, comprehensive Latin-English vocabulary in the back.



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Richardson: Carmina Anglica

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Carmina Anglica by Leon Josiah Richardson (1899)

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This includes facing-text versions of English poems ("Under the greenwood tree," for example, and "Come live with me and be my love," etc.) and renderings into Latin verse. Note that the names of the English poets can be found at the END of each English poem.



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Theatrum Lyricum

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Theatrum Lyricum (1721)

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The extravagant title page gives abundant information about the contents and purposes of this book: "quo poetarum lyricorum omnium, quotquot ab Horatio, ad haec usque tempora editi sunt, et haberi potuerunt Phrases, Loci Communes, Comparationes, Synonyma, Epitheta, Sententiae, et Elegantiae Poeticae cum summa cura et industria iuxta ordinem Alphabeticum ita exhibentur, ut quidquid in omnibus poetis lyricis hucusque dispertum fuit, hoc uno volumine totum contineatur, opus semper desideratum et in gratiam poeticae et rhetoricae amatorum, praecipue in studiosae iuventutis commodum nunc primo concinnatum et editum, cum indice copiosissimo inseruntur descriptiones sacra et profana elegantissima fere 500 accesserunt in fine in usum rhetorices studiosorum." The book comes in "tres libelli" as follows: I. Elegantias Lyricas, Acumina, et quidquid commode ad ordinem Alphabeticum reduci non potuit complectitur; II. Varium verborum et nominum usum apud poetas lyricos ostendit; III. Exhibet modum et auxilia carmen lyricum componendi. The book is enormous, well over 700 pages.



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Knatchbull: Kalila and Dimna

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Kalila and Dimna, The Fables of Bidpai by Wyndham Knatchbull (1819)

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This is an English translation from the Arabic Kalila-wa-Dimna; for Keith-Falconer's translation from the Syriac version, see this blog post. Unlike Keith-Falconer's book, Knatchbull's book does not contain an introduction or notes.



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Flowers of Fable

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Flowers of Fable (1847)

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The book draws on a wide range of authors: Northcote, Aesop, Croxall, Gellert, Dodsley, Gay, La Fontaine, Lessing, Krasicki, Harder, Merrick, Cowper, etc. (Of course I was especially glad to see Krasicki there, whose Polish bajki are some of my favorites!) The anthologizer's initials appear to be "C.K.F." but no full name is given. Unfortunately, no citations are given for the fables - there is no way to know which fable comes from which source; there is an alphabetical list of titles, but no source information at all. Some of the fables are in prose, and some are in verse, and quite a few of them are accompanied by illustrations. The author is very emphatic in the introduction that the fables are suitable for children and morally uplifting, without any of the repugnant scurrility that often makes its way into collections of fables! Ha!



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New Dictionary of Quotations from the Greek, Latin, and Modern Languages

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A New Dictionary of Quotations from the Greek, Latin, and Modern Languages (1869)

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As the book's subtitle explains, the quotations are "translated into English, and occasionally accompanied with illustrations, historical poetical, and anecdotal, with an extensive index, referring to every important word." The quotations are arranged alphabetically, with the different languages mixed together. Each quotation does have an English translation, but not all of them have notes, although some of the quotations have quite extensive notes. The author's name is strangely not identified, although he said to be the author of some other books; when I checked on those books, it seems that the author for those books is likewise unknown. If anyone knows the author of this book, let me know!



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Keith-Falconer: Kalilah and Dimnah

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Kalilah and Dimnah, The Fables of Bidpai by I.G.N. Keith-Falconer (1885)

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The stories of Kalilah and Dimnah is a version of the ancient Indian Panchatantra tradition, translated here from a Syriac version into English. There are several medieval Latin versions of these stories as well; this book provides a good introduction of this beautiful literary tradition, along with the stories - it's a useful book to consult if you are interested in perhaps reading one of the medieval Latin versions, such as the Directorium Humanae Vitae.



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Bent: Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men

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Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men by Samuel Arthur Bent (1887)

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As the subtitle of the book explains, it comes "with historical and explanatory notes." The sayings are arranged alphabetically by the author or speaker. The historical notes are extremely interesting, giving a context for the sayings - but the sayings are all in English, without any of the original languages being cited consistently. So, the book is a great read, extremely educational - but to have the actual Latin or Greek quotes, you will have to work with another book that you can coordinate with this one.



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Cholodniak: Carmina Sepulcralia Latina

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Carmina Sepulcralia Latina by John Cholodniak (1897)

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The book contains over 500 pages of Latin tomb inscriptions, with some useful notes on the Latin texts. Some of the inscriptions are highly fragmented, of course, but many are entirely readable. There is an index of incipits, along with cross-references to the various catalogs of Latin inscriptions.



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Harbottle: Dictionary of Quotations

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Dictionary of Quotations (Classical) by Thomas Harbottle (1906)

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The book is organized alphabetically by the Latin quotation, followed by a section of Greek quotations; you will find proverbs here, along with some small chunks of poetry, with English translations provided for all. Citations are provided for the Latin and Greek texts, and there are also author and subject indexes.



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Foreign Phrases in Daily Use

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Foreign Phrases in Daily Use (1906)

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This publication by Funk & Wagnalls provides "a readers' guide to popular and classic terms in the literature of seven languages with explanations of their meanings." It is organized alphbetically by the foreign phrase, so the Latin phrases are mixed in with the phrases of other languages; French and Latin are far and away the most represented.



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Tappan: Folk Stories and Fables

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Folk Stories and Fables by Eva March Tappan (1907)

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This is part "The Children's Hour" series (volume 1 of 10 volumes). This is a delightful anthology with stories from all over the world, running to over 500 pages. It is an anthology drawing on books which are also in the public domain, so if you find a section of this book which you like, you would be able to find the book from which Ms. Tappan made her selections.



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Walsh: International Encyclopedia of Prose and Poetical Quotations

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International Encyclopedia of Prose and Poetical Quotations by William S. Walsh (1908)

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As the subtitle of the books explains, quotations are included from many languages: English, Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Persian, Italian, German, Chinese, Hebrew and others. At over a thousand pages long, there are indeed quite a few quotations in here. The quotations are organized alphabetically by topics with all the languages mixed together, along with various indexes, including author indexes and subject indexes. It's a fun book to browse through, and the Latin quotations do include the Latin as well as the English translation.


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Gaisford: Joannis Stobaei Florilegium

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Joannis Stobaei Florilegium by Thomas Gaisford (1823)

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All four volumes of Gaisford's edition of Stobaeus are available at Google Books, but I have just listed volume 4 here, since that is the volume that is probably of most interest to readers at this blog. Volumes 1-3 are a critical edition of the Greek text but the fourth volume contains the Latin version of Hugo Grotius!


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