Jewish Fables. Berechiah ben Natronai ha-Nakdan: "Mishle Shu'alim".

This thesis deals with the fable collection called Mishle Shu'alim, written by the Jewish author Berechiah ben Natronai ha-Nakdan who lived in the 12th/13th century either in France or in England. The aim of this thesis is to introduce the work along with the genre of the fable and its examples in Jewish literature of the Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Bible, Talmud, midrashic literature and a few of medieval scripts). The essential part of the thesis contains information about the author and all his works, characterization and analysis of the collection, and the list of the existing manuscripts, all known editions, and all translations of the collection or those of individual fables. Special attention is being paid to the Prague Jesuit edition of 1661. The thesis furthermore contains a commented translation of three selected fables