What is the 'Perry Index' associated with?

The 'Perry Index' is a widely used index of 'Aesop's Fables' or 'Aesopica', the fables credited to Aesop, the storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC. Modern scholarship takes the view that Aesop probably did not compose all of the fables attributed to him; indeed, a few are known to have first been used before Aesop lived, while the first record we have of many others is from well over a millennium after his time.

Traditionally, Aesop's fables were arranged alphabetically, which is not helpful to the reader. B. E. Perry listed them by language (Greek then Latin), chronologically, by source, and then alphabetically; the Spanish scholar Francisco Rodríguez Adrados created a similar system. This system also does not help the casual reader, but is the best for scholarly purposes.

Ben Edwin Perry (1892–1968) was a professor of classics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1924 to 1960. He was author of 'Studies in the Text History of the Life and Fables of Aesop' and many other books. His 'Aesopica' ("A Series of Texts Relating to Aesop or Ascribed to Him or Closely Connected with the Literal Tradition that Bears His Name") has become the definitive edition of all fables reputed to be by Aesop, with fables arranged by earliest known source. His index of fables has been used as a reference system by later authors.