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PFORTA, or SCHULPFORTA

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 341 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PFORTA, or SCHULPFORTA , formerly a Cistercian monastery dating from 1140, and now a celebrated See also:German public school. It is in the Prussian See also:province of See also:Saxony, on the See also:Saale, 2 M. S.W. of See also:Naumburg. The remains of the monastery include the 13th See also:century See also:Gothic See also:church, recently restored, the Romanesque See also:chapel (12th century) and other buildings now used as dormitories, lecture rooms, &c. There is also the Furstenhaus, built in 1573. Schulpforta was one of the three Furstenschulen founded in 1543 by See also:Maurice See also:duke, and later elector, of Saxony, the two others being at See also:Grimma and at See also:Meissen. The See also:property of the dissolved monastery provided a See also:good See also:revenue for the new educationaI See also:foundation,which now amounts to about X15,000 a See also:year. See also:Free See also:education is provided for 140 boys, the See also:total number of pupils being 185. After being in the See also:possession of Saxony, Pforta passed to See also:Prussia in 1815, and since this date the school has been entirely reorganized. charioteer and favourite of See also:Gaius. The See also:fourth See also:book is dedicated to Particulo, who seems to have dabbled in literature. The See also:dates of their publication are unknown, but See also:Seneca, See also:writing between A.D.

41 and 43 (Consol. ad Polyb. 27), knows nothing of See also:

Phaedrus, and it is probable that he had published nothing then. His See also:work shows little or no originality; he simply versified in See also:iambic trimeters the fables current in his See also:day under the name of "See also:Aesop," interspersing them with anecdotes See also:drawn from daily See also:life, See also:history and See also:mythology. He tells his See also:fable and draws the moral with businesslike directness and simplicity; his See also:language is terse and clear, but thoroughly prosaic, though it occasionally attains a dignity bordering on eloquence. His Latin is correct, and, except for an excessive and See also:peculiar use of abstract words, shows hardly anything that might not have been written in the Augustan See also:age. From a See also:literary point of view Phaedrus is inferior to See also:Babrius, and to his own imitator, La See also:Fontaine; he lacks the quiet picturesqueness and pathos of the former, and the exuberant vivacity and See also:humour of the latter. Though he frequently refers to the envy and detraction which pursued him, Phaedrus seems to have attracted little See also:attention in antiquity. He is mentioned by' See also:Martial (iii. 20, 5), who imitated some of his verses, and by See also:Avianus. See also:Prudentius must have read him, for he imitates one of his lines (Prud. Cath. vii. 115; cf.

Phaedrus, iv. 6, so). The first edition of the five books of Phaedrus was published by See also:

Pithou at See also:Troyes in 1596 from a See also:manuscript now in the possession of the See also:marquis of Rosanbo. In the beginning of the 18th century there was discovered at See also:Parma a MS. of Perotti (1430-1480), See also:arch-See also:bishop of Siponto, containing sixty-four fables of Phaedrus, of which some See also:thirty were new. These new fables were first published at See also:Naples by Cassitto in 1808, and afterwards (much more correctly) by Jannelli in 18o9. Both See also:editions were superseded by the See also:discovery of a much better preserved MS. of Perotti in the Vatican, published by Angelo See also:Mai in 1831. For some See also:time the authenticity of these new fables was disputed, but they are now generally accepted, and with See also:justice, as genuine fables of Phaedrus. They do not See also:form a See also:sixth book, for we know from Avianus that Phaedrus wrote five books only, but it is impossible to assign them to their See also:original places in the five books. They are usually printed as an appendix. In the See also:middle ages Phaedrus exercised a considerable See also:influence through the See also:prose versions of his fables which were current, though his own See also:works and even his name were forgotten. Of these prose versions the See also:oldest existing seems to be that known as the " Anonymus Nilanti," so called because first edited by Nilant at See also:Leiden in 1709 from a MS. of the 13th century. It approaches the See also:text of Phaedrus so closely that it was probably made directly from it.

Of the sixty-seven fables which it contains thirty are derived from lost fables of Phaedrus. But the largest and most influential of the prose versions of Phaedrus is that which bears the name of See also:

Romulus. It contains eighty-three fables, is as old as the loth century, and seems to have been based on a still earlier prose version, which, under the name of " Aesop," and addressed to one See also:Rufus, may have been made in the Carolingian See also:period or even earlier. About this Romulus nothing is known. The collection of fables in the See also:Weissenburg (now Wolfenbiittel) MS. is based on the same version as Romulus. These three prose versions contain in all one See also:hundred distinct fables, of which fifty-six are derived from the existing and the remaining See also:forty-four presumably from lost fables of Phaedrus. Some scholars, as See also:Burmann, Dressler and L. See also:Muller, have tried to restore these lost fables by versifying the prose versions. The collection bearing the name of Romulus became the source from which, during the second See also:half of the middle ages, almost all the collections of Latin fables in prose and See also:verse were wholly or partially drawn. A 12th-century version of the first three books of Romulus in elegiac verse enjoyed a wide popularity, even into the See also:Renaissance. Its author (generally referred to since the edition of Nevelet in 1610 as the " Anonymus Neveleti ") was See also:long unknown, but Hervieux has shown grounds for identifying him with See also:Walther of See also:England, See also:chaplain to See also:Henry II. and afterwards See also:archbishop of See also:Palermo. Another version of Romulus in Latin elegiacs was made by See also:Alexander See also:Neckam, See also:born at St Albans in 1157.

Amongst the collections partly derived from Romulus the most famous is probably that in See also:

French verse by See also:Marie de See also:France. About 1200 a collection of fables in Latin prose, based partly on Romulus, was made by the Cistercian See also:monk See also:Odo of Sherrington; they have a strong See also:medieval and clerical tinge. In 1370 See also:Gerard of See also:Minden wrote a poetical version of Romulus in See also:Low German. Since Pithou's edition in 1596 Phaedrus has been often edited and translated; among the editions may be mentioned those of Burmann (1718 and 1727), See also:Bentley (1726), See also:Schwabe (18o6), Berger de Xivrey (183o), See also:Orelli (1832), Eyssenhardt (1867), L. Muller (1877), Rica (1885), and above all that of L. See also:Havet (See also:Paris, 1895).

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