This author was earlier called theAnonymus Neveleti, referring to attribution in the seventeenth-centuryMythologia Aesopica ofIsaac Nicholas Nevelet. The name Walter (Latin Gualterus) was produced byLéopold Hervieux,[2] on the basis of manuscript evidence, and he went on to identify the author asWalter of the Mill,archbishop of Palermo from 1168 onwards. Scholars have disputed this second step of identification;[3] it may no longer be supported.[4] The entire attribution is attacked.[5]
This collection of 62 fables is more accurately called the verseRomulus,[6] or elegiacRomulus (from itselegiac couplets). Given the uncertainty over the authorship, these terms are used in scholarly works.
There is an earlier prose version ofRomulus, also;[7][8] it has been dated as early as the tenth century,[9] or the sixth century.[10] It is adapted fromPhaedrus; the initial fable "The Cock and the Jewel", supposedly the reply of Phaedrus to his critics,[10] marks out fable collections originating from this source. Walter changed the "jewel" from apearl tojasper.[11][12]
The verseRomulus formed the mainstream versions of medieval 'Aesop'.[13] It is thought to be the version used byDante.[14] It withOvid influenced theDoligamus ofAdolphus of Vienna [de].[15]
WhenJohn Lydgate producedIsopes Fabules, the first fable collection written in English, the verseRomulus was a major source.[16] Particularly sophisticated use of this fable tradition is made later in the 15th century inRobert Henryson'sMorall Fabillis, written in Scots.[17][18][19][20]
Early printed editions appeared under the titleAesopus moralisatus, around 1500.
Julia Bastin (editor) (1929–30),Recueil général des Isopets (two volumes)
Sandro Boldrini (1994),Uomini e bestie: le favole dell Aesopus latinus
Aaron E. Wright (editor) (1997),The Fables of "Walter of England", Edited from Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Codex Guelferbytanus 185 Helmstadiensis
Paola Busdraghi (editor) (2005),L'Esopus. attribuito a Gualtiero Anglico
Rebekka Nöcker:Volkssprachiges Proverbium in der Gelehrtenkultur : ein lateinischer Fabelkommentar des 15. Jahrhunderts mit deutschen Reimpaarepimythien; Untersuchung und Edition, Berlin [u.a.] : De Gruyter, 2015,ISBN978-3-05-006442-0
^Galterus, Gualtherus Anglicus, Waltarius; Walter the Englishman, Walter of England, Walther; Gauthier or Gautier l'Anglais; Anonyme de Nevelet.
^InLes fabulistes latins depuis le siècle d'Auguste jusqu'à la fin du Moyen-Age, 1893-4.
^L. J. A. Loewenthal,For the Biography of Walter Ophamil, Archhishop of Palermo, The English Historical Review, Vol. 87, No. 342 (Jan., 1972), pp. 75-82.
^Bruno W. Häuptli (2005). "Walter von Palermo (Gualtiero di Palermo, Gautier de Palerme, Gualterius Palermitanus; angeblich auch: Waltherus Anglicus, Gualtiero Anglico, Gualterus Ophamilius, Walter of Mill, Gualtiero Offamilio)". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.).Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 25. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1447–1453.ISBN3-88309-332-7.
^Cataldo Roccaro,Sull'autore dell'Aesopus comunemente attribuito a Gualtiero Anglico, Pan: studi dell'Istituto di Filologia Latina, Università degli Studi, Palermo 17 (1999).
