La Fontaine et Avianus (et d'autres fabulistes latins)

Because of the intertextuality characteristic of the classical fable’s style through the centuries, it’s not always easy to find the exact sources of the fables of La Fontaine. As regards the Latin sources, if in recent times the relationships between La Fontaine and Phaedrus have been in depth investigated, showing the strong influence that the Latin poet had on the concept and the composition of the Fables  especially for their first six books edited in 1668 , we can’t say the same for other less known Latin fabulists of the Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Through the analysis of the themes and the narrative structure of the single fables, this essay aims to investigate how Avianus, the Anonymus Neveleti and the pseudo-Dositheus influenced the collection of La Fontaine.