[Hierakosophion] Rei accipitrariae scriptores nunc primum editi. Accessit [Kynosophion] Liber de cura canum

Rigault, Nicolas; Pepagomenus, Demetrius

Lutetiae (Paris): Officiana Nivelliana, 1612.

First Edition. Hardcover (Full Leather). Very Good Condition. Item #044731

Later full calf, rebacked, spine a bit dry, edges a little scuffed. Light dampstains to title and an old ownership signature, notes to front endpapers. quite clean internally with scattered minor foxing, corner of one page torn; an attractive copy and very good overall. First edition in the original Greek, followed by the Latin translation originally published in 1562 by the librarian to Louis XIII. [16], 278, [30], 111 [i.e. 211], [1], 120 p. Graesse VI 331 (noting the Morel edition and this one on whiter, stronger paper than the others), Bibliotheca Accipitrari.

One of the earliest treatises on Falconry, Pepagomenos (1200-1300) was court physician to Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos - the treatise deals with the catching, training and health of the hawks, describing in detail the methods of capturing the hawks using decoy pigeons and various sorts of blinds. This work also collects for the first time, a second, anonymous Greek work on falconry dealing largely with the health of the birds (it occupies pages 177-239), the Latin translation of the same, and a third Greek treatise, (occupying pages 239-the end) this one not translated, dealing with descriptions of hawks in the first section and their diseases in the second. The final section has the only surviving edition of a (likely apocryphal) letter to Ptolemy of Egypt (it is cited by Albertus Magnus in his book on falconry) by Aquila Symmachus here printed in Catalan (the original Latin MS is lost) and an excerpt from a book by Symmachus on falconry (these occupy pages 183-200 and 201-211 respectively). The final sections are a long poem on falconry entitled Hieracosophion, sive de re accipitraria libri III, originally published in 1582 and a work on the care of dogs for hunting, De Cura Canum Venaticorum. Size: Quarto (4to). Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: 1-2 kilos. Category: Animals & Birds; Fishing & Hunting. Inventory No: 044731.

Price: $3,000.00