eadfrith: The Kerdeston Hawking Book - folio 34v - 34rThis extraordinary, and well used book from th
eadfrith: The Kerdeston Hawking Book - folio 34v - 34rThis extraordinary, and well used book from the look of it contains topics on the training of hawks and falcons for hunting, and treatment of their illnesses. In an East Anglian form of Middle English. Made about 1430 for Sir Thomas Kerdeston of Claxton, Norfolk, EnglandAdd MS 82949; Images from the British Library Manuscript Websitehttp://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_82949The reason the book looks well-used is because it was missing a cover for a while, it looks like. So you see this big crack in the opening folios that splits the full page illumination, and the back folio is also very worn.One of the things that’s interesting about these hawking and hunting treatises or manuals (or whatever you want to call them) is that it’s easy to assume that because they are so often instructional, that hunters used them as practical books and would take them out in the field. But as is the case with this book, a lot of the copies of these things are dolled up, illuminated display copies that would have been fairly expensive, and are mainly used for recreational reading.It’s weird to see this kind of writing as leisure reading, but it tells us a lot about the interests of the aristocracy and the gentry.harkerling, you might start with John Cummins’ “The Art of Medieval Hunting: the Hound and the Hawk.” I actually think I have a second copy of it? I’ll check on that and if you want I can send it your way. -- source link
#medieval studies#move along