The Book of Saint Albans
The Book of Saint Albans or The Boke of Saint Albans was the last of 8 books printed by the St Albans Press in England in 1486.[1][2]
It contains three essays, on hawking, hunting, and heraldry. It became wildly popular, and went through many editions, quickly acquiring an additional essay on angling.[3]
The essay on hunting is attributed to Dame Juliana Berners (or Barnes or Bernes) who is believed to have been the prioress of Sopwell Priory near St Albans.
The book also contains a large list of collective nouns for animals, such as "murder of crows", and is the first known collection of specific collective nouns in the English language.[3]
A modern collection is James Lipton's An Exaltation of Larks, originally published in 1968.
Hawking (falconry)
The Book of Saint Albans provides this hierarchy of hawks and the social ranks for which each bird was supposedly appropriate.
This list, however, was mistaken in several respects.
- Vultures are not used for falconry, though many bird of prey centres nevertheless include vultures in their collections and in their displays.
- The Falcon/Tercel Gentle, Falcon of the Loch and Falcon Peregrine are usually said to be different names for the Peregrine Falcon. But there is an opinion that renders Falcon of the Loch as "rock falcon", or a peregrine from remote rocky areas, which would be bigger and stronger than other peregrines. This could also refer to the Scottish Peregrine.
- The bustard is not a bird of prey, but a game species that was commonly hunted by falconers. This entry may have been a mistake for buzzard or for busard which is French for "harrier", but any of these would be inappropriate for barons. Some treat this entry as "bastard hawk", possibly meaning a hawk of unknown lineage, or a hawk that couldn't be identified.
- Sakers were imported from abroad and were very expensive, and ordinary knights and squires would be unlikely to have them. There are contemporary records of lanners native to England.
- Hobbies and kestrels are historically considered to be of little use for serious falconry, however King Edward I of England sent a falconer to catch hobbies for his use. The French name for the Hobby is faucon hobereau, hobereau meaning "local/country squire", which may be the source of the confusion. Kestrels are coming into their own as worthy hunting birds, as modern falconers dedicate more time to their specific style of hunting. While not suitable for catching game for the falconer's table, kestrels are certainly capable of catching enough quarry that they can be fed on surplus kills through the molt.
- There is an opinion [4] that, since the goshawk comes just before, the poor man's entry ("Ther is a Tercell. And that is for the powere man.") means a male goshawk and that here "poor man" means not a labourer or beggar, but someone at the bottom end of the scale of landowners.
It can be seen that the relevance of the "Boke" to practical falconry past or present is extremely tenuous, and veteran British falconer Phillip Glasier dismissed it as "merely a formalised and rather fanciful listing of birds".
References
- ^ ยง9. "The Book of St. Albans". XIII. The Introduction of Printing into England and the Early Work of the Press. Vol. 2. The End of the Middle Ages. The Cambridge History of Eng...
- ^ Berners, Dame Juliana (1881 reproduction) [First published 1486]. The Boke of Saint Albans. Introduction by William Blades. London: Elliot Stock. http://www.archive.org/details/bokeofsaintalban00bernuoft. Retrieved 2011-05-27.
- ^ a b World Wide Words: Precision of Lexicographers
- ^ page 11, issue #36, Austringer periodical, published by The Welsh Hawking Club