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Phryx Aesopus (Osius, 1574)

95. VERMICULUS ET VULPES. (Perry 289)

SQualidus e putri prorepens stercore Vermis
Iactat iners, morbis quae medeatur, opem.
Vincere sese usu longo vel Paeonis artem,
Quo medicante tamen turba sit usa Deum.
Quem quia nutantem rugoso corpore Vulpes
Vidit, et indigne verba superba tulit:
Te prius hac ipsum curares stulte decebat
Arte, mihi temere quam profit eris, ait.
Desipis, ostentas ea si quis inania verbis,
Quae praest are tamen re minus ipse potes.
Deliras, alii qui vis avertere morbum,
Qui tamen ipse scatens ulcere corpus habes.

*** The drawing does not fit the fable. ***

This same image appears more fittingly at Fable 35.

Phryx Aesopus Habitu Poetico, by Hieronymus Osius, 1574 (artist not identified). Available online at the University of Mannheim. This book clearly recycles a set of images from another book of Aesop's fables. In some cases, the illustration does not match the fable shown, and in some cases I have not been able to identify what fable a given illustration is supposed to illustrate.