Under the direction of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, China-CEEC Libraries Union was established in October 2018 in Hangzhou, China, with its secretariat permanently set in Hangzhou Public Library. More than 60 libraries from China and CEEC, on a voluntary basis, seek common progress made on the principle of "equality, mutual benefit, inclusiveness and openness". 

The Very Collection in My Library aims to introduce treasures kept in each member library to audience in China and Central and Eastern European countries and bring ancient books into the limelight, through of which people could enhance their understanding of cultures and histories of other countries.

This episode here is presented by Snezana Stojcevska, the director of City Library “Braka Miladinovci”, introducing you the rare ancient book Aesop’s Fables of Phrygia.

(The Very Collection in My Library is updated on Cooperation between China and CEEC official website http://www.china-ceec.org/ and CHINA CULTURE.org https://cn.chinaculture.org/.)

City Library “Braka Miladinovci” is located in the city center of the capital city Skopje of North Macedonia. It has a rich rare books collection that have an invaluable historical value. Aesop’s Fables of Phrygia printed in 1566 is one of them.

The book does not have the original cover, because of the poor condition in which it was found, and after 2005 the cover was completely renewed and restored in leather, only part of the original spine title is preserved. The title of the book and the rest of the information on the cover page are written in black letters on Latin and German language. The year of printing is written in Roman letters 1566, the place of printing is Frankfurt am Main. 

The book is in small format of 15 centimeters and has 194 pages and around 190 unmarked pages. The preface of the book is written in handwritten German language with an initial decorative letter, signed by Hortman Schopper. While the note on Aesop’s life is written in epigram and is enriched with illustrations, and the text is written in Latin and German and is also signed by Hortman Schopper.

The publication has a story register. The book contains fables and texts in Latin and German, and some pages contain text in ancient Greek. There are illustrations on almost every page, where different types of animals, people and nature are shown in order to vividly describe the fable. Some pages are decorated with vignettes and decorative letters.

Part of the book has been digitized in the library and it is available on the site of the digital library “Braka Miladinovci”.