The Art of Falconry

Abstract

IT will scarcely be questioned that this work of the great Roman Emperor, the founder of the University of Naples in 1224, is one of the most remarkable scientific documents which have come down to us from the Middle Ages. Having said this, it is astonishing to have to add that the present edition is the first appearance of the complete work in print in any language. We owe this tardy recognition to the devotion and learning of the senior translator, Dr. Casey Wood, the founder of the Wood Library of Ornithology at the McGill University, Montreal. The fact that there is a widespread revival of interest in Frederick's researches in ornithology is the achievement of another distinguished American scholar—the late Prof. C. H. Haskins. What is needed now is the publication of a standardized Latin text collated from all the known manuscripts; but the task would be long, arduous and costly. The Art of Falconry Being the "De Arte Venandi cum Avibus" of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. Translated and edited by Casey A. Wood F. Marjorie Fyfe. Pp. cx + 637 (186 plates). (Stanford University, Calif.: Stanford University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1943.) 60s. net.