# Fries (Zurich, 1556b) ## expand\_more Author of this page: Elena Lu, Harvard (2024) Gessner’s poem for this newer edition of Fries’ Latin-German dictionary, now smaller and aimed specifically at teaching children, mirrors and expands on the poem he composed for the first (Fries 1556). Comparing the larger first edition to the sun and this smaller new edition to the moon, Gessner praises the usefulness of both, with a focus on the latter’s educational quality (*suos docet Germanos*). This poem is preceded by a dedication to the “bright and noble youth;” a letter from Fries to the reader; and poems by Ioannes Parkhurstus of England, Ioannes Sturmius, M. Toxites, and Rudolph Gwalther. It is followed by poems by Joesph Kessler of St. Gallen, David Kessler of St. Gallen, and Honoratus Columberius of Narbona; the front matter ends with a woodblock image of Fries, accompanied by an eight-line poem by Diethelmus Cellarius of Zurich. Translation: Johannes Fries’ Latin-German Dictionaries, the big one and the small one; Gessner’s song. What is there in the world that the great Eastern Phoebus does not show with his light? What words of the Latin language, obscure though they may be, does Frisius not elucidate? He teaches his Germans whatever it is pleasing aptly and rightly to publish, with the greatest edited book of any language, for those who were not so long ago uneducated in Latin. Since then, he took that book and produced this smaller one, just as the Moon takes from her brother the power of light. Oh most studious ones, cherish and cultivate this Apollo, the glory of his native tongue; may he be paid this reward for his most useful work. Transliteration: Ioan. Frisii Dictionaria Latinogermanica, Magnum ac Paruum, Con. Gesneri Carmen. Quid magnus Oriens iubare non Phoebus suo Illustrat undiquaque ? Quae non Latinae Frisius vocabula Obscura linguae elucidat ? Efferre quicquid libeat aptè et propriè Suos docet Germanos, Libro utriusque maximo linguae edito In vulgus haud ita pridem. Inde et minorem mutuatus hunc dedit, A fratre Luna ut accipit Vim lucis. Hunc vos ô studiosi Apollinem, Decúsque linguae patriae, Amate, colite, praemium laboris hoc Soluatur utilißimi. ![Fries 1556b-1](/sites/g/files/omnuum9491/files/gzp1565/files/7792993-maximum.jpg) ![Fries 1556b-2](/sites/g/files/omnuum9491/files/gzp1565/files/7792994-maximum.jpg) Citation: Conrad Gessner: Poem, in Johannes Fries, Novum Dictionariolum Puerorum Latinogermanicum, et e diverso Germanicolatinum, Ioanne Frisio Tigurino interprete. Zurich: Froschauer, 1556, sig. α3r-v. Zentralbibliothek Zürich, shelf mark AW 323. Link: