Livre de chasse

The Livre de chasse is a medieval book on hunting, written between 1387 and 1391 by Gaston III, Count of Foix (also known as Phoebus or Fébus) and dedicated to Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. It became a standard text of Renaissance hunting techniques and survives in several illuminated manuscript copies.

The book has four parts:

• On Gentle and Wild Beasts
• On the Nature and Care of Dogs
• On Instructions for Hunting with Dogs
• On Hunting with Traps, Snares, and Crossbow^[1]

Editions

The work was printed three times in the 16th century (once around 1500 and twice around 1507), and has gone through several modern editions since 1854, most recently in Das Jagdbuch des Mittelalters. Ms. fr. 616 der Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, edited by W. Schlag and Marcel Thomas (Glanzlichter der Buchkunst 4; Graz, 1994; reprinted 2001).

Manuscripts

Surviving manuscrpts of the work include the following^[2]

• MS IV 1050 – Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels.
• Typ 130 – Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge (Mass).
• Ms. 343 – Bibliothèque Inguimbertine, Carpentras.
• Ms. 367 (480) – Bibliothèque et Archives du Château de Chantilly, Chantilly.
• Oc. 61 – Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Dresden.
• Ms. 169 – Bibliothèque publique et universitaire, Geneva.
• Hunter 385 (V.2.5) – Glasgow University Library, Glasgow.
• Rastatt 124 – Badische Landesbibliothek, Karlsruhe.
• Add. 27699 – The British Library, London.
• MS. 27 – J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
• Ms. 765 – Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon.
• Ms. 22 – Musée Thomas-Dobrée, Nantes.
• MS M. 1044 – Morgan Library, New York.
• MS fr. 616, MS fr. 617, MS fr. 618, MS fr. 619, MS fr. 620, MS fr. 1289, MS fr. 1291, MS fr. 1293, MS fr. 1294, MS fr. 1295, MS fr. 12398 – Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
• Ms. 6529 – Musée national du Château de Pau, Pau.
• HB XI 34a – Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart.
• J.a.VIII.6 – Archivio di Stato di Torino, Turin.
• Ms. 841 – Bibliothèque municipale de Tours
• Reginensi latini 1323, Reginensi latini 1326, Reginensi latini 1331 – Vatican Library, Vatican City.

References