FORTUNA'TUS is the title of one of the best people's books (Volksbileher) ever writ ten. It originated about the middle of the 15th c., though many of the tales and legends included in it are of much older date. The opinion that it was worked up into Ger man from a Spanish or Euglish original may be considered as set aside. The sub stance of the book is that F., and his sons after him, are the possessors of an inexhaustible purse of gold and a wishing-cap, which, however, in the end, prove the cause of their ruin. The moral is that worldly prosperity alone is insufficient to produce lasting happiness. The oldest printed edition of the book now extant bears the date Frankfurt am Maine, 1509. Later German editions mostly bear the title, For tunatus, .voa Seinent Seckel until Wunselt-hittlein (Fortunatus: Story of his Purse and Wishing-cap. Augsb. 1530; NUrn.b. 1677; and Basel, 1609). It has been reprinted in Simrock's Doutsche Tilk,sbaelter (3 vols., Frankt. am Maine, 1846). Various French versions of the German story have appeared from time to time, as the Historic de For tunatus (Rouen, 1670); which served as the groundwork of the Italian Avennimenti de Fortunatus e de' Suoi FIyU (Naples, 1676). From the German original, have also sprung,
among others, the Dutch version Ben :Nieuwe Histoire ran Fortunatus Horse en -van Zjnen Wenseh hoed (Amat. 1790); later, the English History of Fortunatus and ins Two Sons (London, no date); the Danish pung og iffiskehat (Kopen. 1664, 1672, 1695, 1756, 1783); the Swedish Fortunatus (1091); and about 1690, two Icelandic versions, one in verse and another in prose. The first to dramatize the subject was Hans Sachs. in his Dar Fortunatus snit dent Wunschseekel (1553), after whom conies the English Thomas Decker with his Pleasant Comedic of Old Fortunatus (1600), a work which had the honor to make its reappearance in German about the year 1620. The most poetical edition of the story is that given by Tieck in his Phantasim (3 vols., Berlin, 1816). See Grfisse's Die Sagenkreise des Mittelalters (Dresd. and Leip. 1842), and Ersch and Gruber's Eneyelo• peedie (sect. 1, vol. 46).