HIERAKOSOPHION. Rei Accipitrariae scriptores nunc primum editi. Accessit KUNOSOPHION. Liber de cura canum. Ex biblioth. Regia Medicea. (Hoc volumine continentur 'Demetrii Constantinop. de re accipitraria liber, a Petro Gillio latine redditus; Alius liber de re accipitraria, latine redditus ab eodem P. Gillio; Libellus de cura canum, latine versus ab Andrea Aurifabro Vratislavienssi medico; Epistola Aquilae Symmachi et Theodotionis ad Ptolemaeum regem Aegypti, de re accipitraria, catalanica lingua; De diversis generibus falconum, sive accipitrum (...) Ex libro incerti auctoris, De Natura Rerum; Jacobi-Augusti Thuani de re accipitraria libri III; Hier. Fracastorii Alcon, sive de cura canum venaticorum) (Edidit N. Rigault)

Paris (Lutetiae), Typis Regiis excudebat C. Morellus, 1612. 4to. 3 parts in 1 volume: (XVI),278,(16 index),(2 blank); (XII),211,(1 blank);120 pages. 18th century mottled calf 23.5 cm. 'Editio princeps' of some Byzantine treatises on the art of falconry and hunting with dogs, together with similar texts on hunting. (Ref: J.E. Harting, 'Bibliotheca Accipitraria', London 1891, no.s 316 & 327 & 223; Schweiger 1,358; Hoffmann 1,500; Brunet 5,244/45: 'Recueil recherché et dont les exemplaires sont rares'; Graesse 6/1,331; Ebert 5916) (Details: Back gilt and with 5 raised bands; a gilt ducal (?) crown with 5 strawberry leaves in 5 compartments, and a brown morocco title label in the second compartment. Boards with gilt double fillets, gilt sides and gilt inside dentelles. Marbled endpapers. Edges dyed red. Woodcut printer's mark on the title, a serpent climbing in a plant. Of this edition there are also copies with the imprint: 'Sumptibus Sebastiani Cramoisy' and 'Sumptibus Hieronymi Drouart'. The only difference being the printer's mark) (Condition: Binding slightly worn. Spine faded and some gilt worn away. Upper joint weak and cracking. Bookplate on the front pastedown. Small tear in the innermargin of the second and third leaf. Else a fine copy) (Note: This edition contains 7 texts, 5 of them devoted to the catching, nursing and training, and the health of birds of prey, such as hawks and falcons, for the hunting of small game, and 2 texts devoted to hunting-dogs. They were collected and edited by the French classical scholar Nicolaus Rigaltius, or Nicolas Rigault, 1577-1654, who was employed in the Bibliothèque Royale from 1604. The first part, p. 1-278, contains a Greek corpus of 3 treatises from 2 manuscripts in the Bibliothèque Royale. All 3 are attributed to the Byzantine scholar, and perhaps court physician of the emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, Demetrius Pepagomenus Constantinopolitanus, 1200-1300, since they all have the name of Demetrius Constantinopolitanus at the commencement. The first 2 treatises are 'editiones principes', they are on hawks (accipitres in Latin, hierakes in Greek). A Latin translation of these 2 treatises was published previously by the French scholar Pierre Gilles, Lyons 1562, 1565, with the 'Historia Animalium' of Aelianus. § 'The treatise commences by teaching how and when hawks are to be caught; how to choose one; how to distinguish the different kinds; how to tell whether a hawk is sick or in good health; how to tame and train them; and concludes by an enumeration of the various diseases to which hawks are supposed to be liable, with the remedies prescribed. These recipes were apparently copied from older MSS., for the author in his first chapter states that not a few wise men had already written on this part of the subject. The details which he gives of the methods of catching and training hawks in Greece in his day (the middle of the thirteenth century) are interesting as showing the antiquity of some of the practices well known to modern falconers. The capture of the birds was effected from a hut in which the falconer was concealed, and from which he let out decoy pigeons, on taking which the hawks themselves were seized. Another plan was for the falconer to extend himself at full length upon the ground, covering himself with grass, and fluttering a pigeon to attract the hawk, which he grasped by the legs as soon as the pigeon was taken. Hawks were also captured by pegging down a live pigeon in the midst of limed twigs, or in a net suspended from a tree in front of which was tethered a live fowl or pigeon. As soon as taken, the hawk was enveloped in a linen 'sock' (...), and kept thus for a day or two until the taming commenced. It was then placed in a dark room on a perch, to which it was attached by jesses, and the perch had a linen curtain depending from it, as at the present day. (...). The principles of training were the same then as now, but it seems that the hawks were only flown from the hand, and were not put upon the wing before the game was sprung. They were flown at partridges, pheasants, and wild-ducks, the falconer running quickly towards the quarry, and putting it up with a shout, or, in the case of wild fowl, by beating a drum. In the latter case, says the author, the hawk did not carry bells. Each hawk was flown three or four times a day. It is remarkable that no mention is made of the hood, which was first introduced into Europe by Frederick II, who had learnt its use from Arab falconers when in the East. On the other hand, the use of the curtain was known to the Greek falconer'. (Harting no, 327) § In the third treatise, 'On hunting-dogs', the 'Cunosophion', Pepagomenos drew on Arrian's 'Cynegeticus'. It was published and translated into Latin by the German Andreas Aurifaber (Goldschmidt), Wittenberg 1545. (A. Diller, 'Demetrius Pepagomenus', in 'Byzantion', vol. 48, no. 1 (1978), p. 35-42) These 3 works of Pepagomenus are among the principal monuments which remains of the technical literature in Greek devoted to the use and care of birds and hounds, and are an important source of information about language, methods and the practioneers of a branch of the veterinary art. It provides evidence of popular beliefs, and was in the Middle Ages and Renaissance viewed as object of antiquarian interest, but also as a source of practical advice. These 3 Byzantine texts were published by Rigault from a manuscript in the Royal Library at Paris. § The first 182 pages of the second part are filled with the above mentioned Latin translations of Gilles and Goldschmidt. § The pages 183-211 contain a Catalan translation of a letter that was supposed to have been written by the Jewish Hellenistic scholars and Old Testament translators Symmachus, Aquila of Sinope and Theodotion to king Ptolemaeus of Egypt, 'Lo libre dell nudriment he de la cura dels ocels los quals sepertâye ha cassa'. Rigault added this peculiar Catalan translation because 'haud pauca contineat rei accipitrariae praecepta utilia'. (p. ê verso) The original Latin manuscript has been lost, and the treatise is now only known through the version in 'lingua Catalanica' printed here by Rigault. (Harting no. 223) § The third and last part begins with a Neolatin poem in hexameters on falconry, written by Jacques-Auguste de Thou, 1553-1617, the superior of Rigault at the Royal Library. The author, historian and politician De Thou first published this poem, the 'Hieracosophion, sive De Re Accipitraria Libri Tres' in Paris in 1584. He wrote it after a trip with his friend Pierre Pithou through the Languedoc and Provence, where they witnessed hunting with trained birds of prey. (See Harting, no. 306) Rigault added also another short hexametric poem of De Thou, 'Somnium', which he dedicated to Philippe Hurault, Comte de Cheverny, his brother in law. It was first published in Paris in 1587, when Hurault was chancellor of France (1583- 1588). It has nothing to do with birds or dogs. § At the end, p. 114/120, we find a hexametric poem on the training of dogs for the hunt of the famous Italian Renaissance poet Girolamo Fracastoro, latinized as Hieronymus Fracastorius, 1476/1478-1553, 'Alcon sive de cura canum venaticorum', 'Alcon, or: how to take care of dogs for the hunt'. Hunting with dogs was Fracastoro’s favorite pastime) (Provenance: Bookplate of 'the Library of St. Benedict's Abbey, Fort Augustus, Scotland'. Below this a small shelf label. Fort Augustus Abbey, properly St. Benedict's Abbey, at Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire, Scotland, was a Benedictine monastery, from late in the nineteenth century to 1998. The building was sold. The Library was sold at auction at Christies in 2001/2003. This title was auctioned in 2001. (See Wikipedia 'Fort Augustus Abbey')) (Collation: â4, ê4, A-Z4, Aa-Oo4 (leaf Oo4 blank); *4, **2, A-Z4, Aa-Cc4, Dd2 (leaf Dd2 verso blank), A-P4) (Photographs on request)