Gabriele Faerno

The humanist scholar Gabriele Faerno, also known by his Latin name of Faernus Cremonensis, was born in Cremona about 1510 and died in Rome on 17 November 1561.

Having acquired a critical knowledge of the Latin language, he was enabled to display much judgment in the correction of the Roman classics, and in the collation of ancient manuscripts on which he was frequently employed.

His works are as follows: Other Latin authors to whom Faerno dedicated his efforts include Ennius, Horace, Plautus, Suetonius, and Tacitus.

Faerno is counted one of the foremost of the Renaissance Latin poets, largely on account of his "100 Fables" (Centum Fabulae ex antiquis autoribus delectae, et carminibus explicatae).

But Charles Perrault, who published a translation of Faerno's work into French verse (Paris 1699), defended the author from this imputation in his preface.

[6] Besides fables collected 'from ancient authors', Mediaeval folk tales such as The miller, his son and the donkey and The Mice in Council were included in the work as well.