Details
BOOK OF HAWKING, HUNTING AND HERALDRY. - TREATISE OF FISHING WITH AN ANGLE. Westminster: Wynkyn de Worde, 1496.
Chancery 2° (263 x 185). COLLATION: a-e6 f-g4 h6 i4; 2a-2c6 2d8 (a1r woodcut, a1v woodcut and title, a2r signed a1 Boke of Hawkynge, c6r Boke of Huntynge, here attributed to Dame Juliana Berners, e2v Bestys of the chace, Names of dyvers manere houndes, Propritees of a good Grehounde, Proprytees of a good horse, and other texts, e3v The companyes of bestys & foules, including a list of collective nouns, list of shires and provinces, e5v verse beginning A faythfull frende wold I fayne fynde..., e6r The lygnage of Cote armures, g3v Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, woodcut; 2a1r Blasynge of armes, 2d7v colophon, 2d8r full-page woodcut Tudor arms, 2d8v device (McKerrow 1b) printed in red. 73 leaves (of 74, the first leaf lacking). 38 lines. Type: 7:103G, Gouda Typecutter's type C6. Printed in formes. Lombard initials, woodcut ornamental initials, woodcut of fishing with an angle, numerous woodcut illustrations of angling equipment, numerous woodcut coats-of-arms, full-page woodcut incorporating the Tudor arms, large printer's device on final leaf. Red printing in d2v-5r, initials, heading and rubrics printed in red in The blasing of arms, printer's device printed in red, coats-of-arms printed in red and black, finished by hand in ochre and purple, the Tudor arms cut coloured in red and ochre by a contemporary hand. A few contemporary annotations on fishing on h6v-i3r, the Book of Hunting foliated in an 18th-century hand. (Marginal staining, more general in final quire, two repaired tears into text without loss, one blank corner renewed, a few short marginal tears, occasional strengthening at margin, tear in final leaf partly repaired obscuring section of printer's device.) BINDING: 18th-century speckled calf, panelled in blind, single gilt ornament in spine compartments, tan lettering-piece, red speckled edges, probably a Harleian binding, (a few minor scuff marks, slight splitting at joints).
PROVENANCE: contemporary annotations noting types of bait for fishing. -- Davy Chambers (contemporary inscription on a2 witnessed by John Hill, Thys ys dyvye chambers boke I John Hill wyttnes the same). -- Thomas Hill (early 16th-century inscription on final verso, Thomas Hill of Mynnysdon Chapell oweth this boke). -- John Granlond (16th-century inscription on final verso). -- Robert/Edward Harley, 1st/2nd Earl of Oxford (offered in Thomas Osborne's catalogue of the Harleian Library, Catalogus Bibliothecae Harleianae III, no. 3312 and V, no. 1758, corner of front flyleaf clipped twice). Information kindly supplied by Dr. Margaret Nickson. -- early 18th-century inscription of a Greek motto (slightly cropped) referring to leisure fit for a gentleman. [-- Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (18th-century ascription of the Book of Hunting to Dame Juliana Berners)]. -- Earls Fitzwilliam (pressmarks, bookplate of the 7th Earl Fitzwilliam).
Second edition of the Book of Hawking, Hunting and Heraldry, and FIRST EDITION of the Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle. The Treatyse of Fysshynge is the earliest printed essay in English on the subject, and its influence has been widespread. It directly influenced later works such as L. Mascall's Booke of Fishing (1590) and G. Markham's Pleasures of Princes (1614), and Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler 'directly or indirectly, owes a great deal to this work' (Walton, The Compleat Angler, ed. Jonquil Bevan. Oxford: 1983, p.16). The order of fish adopted by Walton may be based on the order in the Treatyse and several passages are quotations from it.
While this is the first appearance in print of the work, its manuscript tradition stretched from the middle of the 15th century to the early decades of the 16th. Two manuscripts containing portions of the text survive, but they are independent of each other. Both are independent of de Worde's printed edition, which confirms that at least three versions were in circulation. (See G. Keiser, 'The Middle English Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle and the Gentle Reader,' Yale University Library Gazette, 61, 1986-87, pp.22-48).
De Worde famously states in the short epilogue to the Treatyse on Fysshynge that he hopes to restrict its audience to gentlemen by printing it not as a separate pamphlet but within a larger volume of gentlemanly pursuits, so that it may not fall into the hands of idle men so easily ('I have compyleyd it in a greter volume of dyverse bokys concernynge to gentyll & noble men to the entent that the forsayd ydle persones whyche sholde have but lytyll mesure in the sayd dysporte of fysshyng sholde not by this meane utterly dystroye it'). However, de Worde did print the Treatyse as a separate quarto edition in 1533; he also reprinted the Book of Hunting separately (see E. Pafort 'Notes on the Wynkyn de Worde Editions of the Boke of St. Albans and its Separates', Studies in Bibliography 5, 1952-3, pp.43-52), thereby making both texts available to a wider audience, perhaps even those crafty men who fish with 'nettes & other engynes'. The Book of Hunting is traditionally attributed to Dame Juliana Berners, although her connection with the work is unclear.
The Book of Hawking, Hunting and Heraldry was first printed in 1486 at St. Albans by the Schoolmaster Printer, so called from de Worde's description (the only extant clue to his identity) as 'sometyme scole master of Saynt Albons' (The Chronicles of England, Goff C-482). The work is therefore also known as The Book of St. Albans. De Worde used a copy of the 1486 edition of the Book of Hawking, Hunting and Heraldry from which to set the present edition ten years later, and part of the marked printer's copy survives. It was acquired by the British Library in 1961 from the London bookseller Alan G. Thomas ('Notable Acquisitions', British Museum Quarterly, 27, 1963-4, pp.100-101). The surviving portion of the exemplar contains the Books of Hunting and of Coat Armour and most of the Blasing of Arms (c6r-g3r 2a1r-2d1r in the present edition). The copy was edited, primarily in the Blasing of Arms, to alter the orthography, modernising the spelling to current London usage. In addition, the tinctures and design of some of the coats-of-arms have been corrected, although not all of the written corrections have been carried out by the compositor in de Worde's shop. (See L. Hellinga, 'The Book of St. Albans 1486,' Fine Books and Book Collecting, ed. C. de Hamel and R. Linenthal, 1981, pp.31-4.) Whereas the 1486 edition printed the coats-of-arms in up to three colours, with additional colour added by hand, de Worde printed the arms in red and black only and had all further emblazoning finished by hand.
The choice of gentlemanly subject matter, reinforced by de Worde's stated intended audience as the 'gentyll & noble' classes, makes it clear that de Worde aimed the edition at wealthy readers, and he may even have printed it for a noble patron. Further evidence is the care he took in printing the edition. Of the woodcuts which adorn it, two (the first here missing) were cut specially for the edition (Hodnett 892 and 897, and the woodcuts of angling equipment); the woodcut on the first page (here missing) had appeared a year earlier in de Worde's edition of De proprietatibus rerum (STC 1536), and the large Tudor emblem at the end appeared in the 1496 Statutes for 11 Henry VII (STC 9352 and 9354). The use of the Tudor emblem may suggest royal patronage. In addition, three copies are known to have been printed on vellum: London, British Library; Manchester, John Rylands Library; Earl of Pembroke copy, untraced. Duff states that the Pembroke copy was sold in his sale of 25-26 June 1914, but only a copy of the 1486 edition appears there; Dibdin, writing in Bibliomania, however, also described a vellum copy owned by Pembroke. The Rylands copy has been fully coloured for an unidentified owner. Among de Worde's known patrons were Roger Thorney, a wealthy merchant, and Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII.
De Worde used a new type to print The Book of Hawking, Hunting and Heraldry, and, curiously, it was never used again. It was a version of the Gouda Typecutter's type C modified for English use (C6). A similar state of type (C5) was used by Gotfridus de Os, a Gouda printer (later at Copenhagen), some of whose material passed to de Worde (see W. and L. Hellinga, The Fifteenth-Century Printing Types of the Low Countries, Amsterdam: 1966, I:82-83).
About 20 copies of this edition survive, at least five of which are imperfect. The 2nd Marquess of Rockingham also owned the first, St. Albans, edition of the Book of Hawking, Hunting and Heraldry, which he acquired at the Ratcliffe sale (Christie's, 27 March 1776, lot 1228, £9.12 to Walter Shropshire).
HC 2466; Duff 57; STC 3309; GW 4933; Goff B-1031; Klebs 500.2
Chancery 2° (263 x 185). COLLATION: a-e6 f-g4 h6 i4; 2a-2c6 2d8 (a1r woodcut, a1v woodcut and title, a2r signed a1 Boke of Hawkynge, c6r Boke of Huntynge, here attributed to Dame Juliana Berners, e2v Bestys of the chace, Names of dyvers manere houndes, Propritees of a good Grehounde, Proprytees of a good horse, and other texts, e3v The companyes of bestys & foules, including a list of collective nouns, list of shires and provinces, e5v verse beginning A faythfull frende wold I fayne fynde..., e6r The lygnage of Cote armures, g3v Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, woodcut; 2a1r Blasynge of armes, 2d7v colophon, 2d8r full-page woodcut Tudor arms, 2d8v device (McKerrow 1b) printed in red. 73 leaves (of 74, the first leaf lacking). 38 lines. Type: 7:103G, Gouda Typecutter's type C6. Printed in formes. Lombard initials, woodcut ornamental initials, woodcut of fishing with an angle, numerous woodcut illustrations of angling equipment, numerous woodcut coats-of-arms, full-page woodcut incorporating the Tudor arms, large printer's device on final leaf. Red printing in d2v-5r, initials, heading and rubrics printed in red in The blasing of arms, printer's device printed in red, coats-of-arms printed in red and black, finished by hand in ochre and purple, the Tudor arms cut coloured in red and ochre by a contemporary hand. A few contemporary annotations on fishing on h6v-i3r, the Book of Hunting foliated in an 18th-century hand. (Marginal staining, more general in final quire, two repaired tears into text without loss, one blank corner renewed, a few short marginal tears, occasional strengthening at margin, tear in final leaf partly repaired obscuring section of printer's device.) BINDING: 18th-century speckled calf, panelled in blind, single gilt ornament in spine compartments, tan lettering-piece, red speckled edges, probably a Harleian binding, (a few minor scuff marks, slight splitting at joints).
PROVENANCE: contemporary annotations noting types of bait for fishing. -- Davy Chambers (contemporary inscription on a2 witnessed by John Hill, Thys ys dyvye chambers boke I John Hill wyttnes the same). -- Thomas Hill (early 16th-century inscription on final verso, Thomas Hill of Mynnysdon Chapell oweth this boke). -- John Granlond (16th-century inscription on final verso). -- Robert/Edward Harley, 1st/2nd Earl of Oxford (offered in Thomas Osborne's catalogue of the Harleian Library, Catalogus Bibliothecae Harleianae III, no. 3312 and V, no. 1758, corner of front flyleaf clipped twice). Information kindly supplied by Dr. Margaret Nickson. -- early 18th-century inscription of a Greek motto (slightly cropped) referring to leisure fit for a gentleman. [-- Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (18th-century ascription of the Book of Hunting to Dame Juliana Berners)]. -- Earls Fitzwilliam (pressmarks, bookplate of the 7th Earl Fitzwilliam).
Second edition of the Book of Hawking, Hunting and Heraldry, and FIRST EDITION of the Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle. The Treatyse of Fysshynge is the earliest printed essay in English on the subject, and its influence has been widespread. It directly influenced later works such as L. Mascall's Booke of Fishing (1590) and G. Markham's Pleasures of Princes (1614), and Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler 'directly or indirectly, owes a great deal to this work' (Walton, The Compleat Angler, ed. Jonquil Bevan. Oxford: 1983, p.16). The order of fish adopted by Walton may be based on the order in the Treatyse and several passages are quotations from it.
While this is the first appearance in print of the work, its manuscript tradition stretched from the middle of the 15th century to the early decades of the 16th. Two manuscripts containing portions of the text survive, but they are independent of each other. Both are independent of de Worde's printed edition, which confirms that at least three versions were in circulation. (See G. Keiser, 'The Middle English Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle and the Gentle Reader,' Yale University Library Gazette, 61, 1986-87, pp.22-48).
De Worde famously states in the short epilogue to the Treatyse on Fysshynge that he hopes to restrict its audience to gentlemen by printing it not as a separate pamphlet but within a larger volume of gentlemanly pursuits, so that it may not fall into the hands of idle men so easily ('I have compyleyd it in a greter volume of dyverse bokys concernynge to gentyll & noble men to the entent that the forsayd ydle persones whyche sholde have but lytyll mesure in the sayd dysporte of fysshyng sholde not by this meane utterly dystroye it'). However, de Worde did print the Treatyse as a separate quarto edition in 1533; he also reprinted the Book of Hunting separately (see E. Pafort 'Notes on the Wynkyn de Worde Editions of the Boke of St. Albans and its Separates', Studies in Bibliography 5, 1952-3, pp.43-52), thereby making both texts available to a wider audience, perhaps even those crafty men who fish with 'nettes & other engynes'. The Book of Hunting is traditionally attributed to Dame Juliana Berners, although her connection with the work is unclear.
The Book of Hawking, Hunting and Heraldry was first printed in 1486 at St. Albans by the Schoolmaster Printer, so called from de Worde's description (the only extant clue to his identity) as 'sometyme scole master of Saynt Albons' (The Chronicles of England, Goff C-482). The work is therefore also known as The Book of St. Albans. De Worde used a copy of the 1486 edition of the Book of Hawking, Hunting and Heraldry from which to set the present edition ten years later, and part of the marked printer's copy survives. It was acquired by the British Library in 1961 from the London bookseller Alan G. Thomas ('Notable Acquisitions', British Museum Quarterly, 27, 1963-4, pp.100-101). The surviving portion of the exemplar contains the Books of Hunting and of Coat Armour and most of the Blasing of Arms (c6r-g3r 2a1r-2d1r in the present edition). The copy was edited, primarily in the Blasing of Arms, to alter the orthography, modernising the spelling to current London usage. In addition, the tinctures and design of some of the coats-of-arms have been corrected, although not all of the written corrections have been carried out by the compositor in de Worde's shop. (See L. Hellinga, 'The Book of St. Albans 1486,' Fine Books and Book Collecting, ed. C. de Hamel and R. Linenthal, 1981, pp.31-4.) Whereas the 1486 edition printed the coats-of-arms in up to three colours, with additional colour added by hand, de Worde printed the arms in red and black only and had all further emblazoning finished by hand.
The choice of gentlemanly subject matter, reinforced by de Worde's stated intended audience as the 'gentyll & noble' classes, makes it clear that de Worde aimed the edition at wealthy readers, and he may even have printed it for a noble patron. Further evidence is the care he took in printing the edition. Of the woodcuts which adorn it, two (the first here missing) were cut specially for the edition (Hodnett 892 and 897, and the woodcuts of angling equipment); the woodcut on the first page (here missing) had appeared a year earlier in de Worde's edition of De proprietatibus rerum (STC 1536), and the large Tudor emblem at the end appeared in the 1496 Statutes for 11 Henry VII (STC 9352 and 9354). The use of the Tudor emblem may suggest royal patronage. In addition, three copies are known to have been printed on vellum: London, British Library; Manchester, John Rylands Library; Earl of Pembroke copy, untraced. Duff states that the Pembroke copy was sold in his sale of 25-26 June 1914, but only a copy of the 1486 edition appears there; Dibdin, writing in Bibliomania, however, also described a vellum copy owned by Pembroke. The Rylands copy has been fully coloured for an unidentified owner. Among de Worde's known patrons were Roger Thorney, a wealthy merchant, and Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII.
De Worde used a new type to print The Book of Hawking, Hunting and Heraldry, and, curiously, it was never used again. It was a version of the Gouda Typecutter's type C modified for English use (C6). A similar state of type (C5) was used by Gotfridus de Os, a Gouda printer (later at Copenhagen), some of whose material passed to de Worde (see W. and L. Hellinga, The Fifteenth-Century Printing Types of the Low Countries, Amsterdam: 1966, I:82-83).
About 20 copies of this edition survive, at least five of which are imperfect. The 2nd Marquess of Rockingham also owned the first, St. Albans, edition of the Book of Hawking, Hunting and Heraldry, which he acquired at the Ratcliffe sale (Christie's, 27 March 1776, lot 1228, £9.12 to Walter Shropshire).
HC 2466; Duff 57; STC 3309; GW 4933; Goff B-1031; Klebs 500.2