[MR] Medieval book on Falconry

[Garth G. Groff]

Friends,

I was hoping to post something about almost any topic other than 
pentagrams, and lo!, a book almost jumped into my hand from the new book 
cart.

THREE ANGLO-NORMAN TREATISES ON FALCONRY edited Tony Hunt (Oxford: 
Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature, 2009; ISBN 
9780907570196, our call #: Alderman SK321 .T48 2009). This book actually 
includes four medieval works: The Cambridge "Tretiz", The Winchester 
Verse Treatise, The "Medicinal des Oiseus", and the "Phisica Avium" as 
an appendix. The introduction and commentary is in English, but the 
actual texts are in what appears to be Latin and Old French. At least I 
think it is OF. I can make out quite a bit with my somewhat limited 
knowledge of modern French, but it is definitely not contemporary. There 
are glossaries following each selection, which will probably be a big 
help. If you are an avid falconer, then this is a book you will probably 
want to track down, since these texts are no doubt very rare. The book 
will not be particularly useful to those with a more casual interest. 
Sorry, no illustrations.

Now back to work.

Kind regards,


Mungo Napier, Shire of Isenfir's Unofficial Librarian
(mka Garth Groff, Cataloging Dept., Alderman Library, UVA)