(FERRIÈRES, HENRI de?)

Paris, L. B. Thomassin et compagnie, 1839. Tall 8vo. (4),16 pp.,139 ff. With half-title and title page in red and black, and numerous woodcut illustrations, some full-page. Late 19th-century half brown morocco over red marbled boards, spine in compartments with raised bands, decorated and lettered in gilt. Top edge gilt. Head and tail of spine a little rubbed, with some light scuffing to morocco, extremities lightly rubbed and bumped. Occasional browning and minor foxing throughout, more noticeable in second half of gathering O. With some neat pencil annotations in a contemporary hand, old bookseller’s description tipped onto front pastedown. From the library of Gunnar Brusewitz and with his bookplate.

Schwerdt Hunting, hawking, shooting II:32. Thiébaud Bibliographie des ouvrages français sur la chasse 400 attributing the work to Henri de Ferrières. Souhart Bibliographie générale des ouvrages sur la chasse 630. Harting Bibliotheca accipitraria 65. An edition of the famous 14th-century hunting manuscript, which was first published in 1486. It was the first printed book in French on hunting, hawking, shooting and bird-catching, except for the translation of the Latin work of Peter Crescentius, which had been printed in the previous year. Copies of the early editions are excessively rare. The identity of the original author is uncertain, and many prominent scholars have tried to solve the riddle of the anagram found in two of the existing manuscripts. This ”rosace” containing 27 letters in two concentric circles is reproduced here and is supposed to reveal the name and surname of the author. Most libraries today attributes the work to Henri de Ferrières, but uncertainty prevails. Harting writes on the present edition: ”This edition, carefully collated with the MSS. in the Bibliotheque Royale, is, in the opinion of Baron Pichon, the learned Président des Bibliophiles Français, much better than any of the preceding editions, now so rare and costly; and is, moreover, the only one that can now be procured at a moderate price (£ 5 or 6). The editor found on examining the MSS. that in former editions of the work whole paragraphs, and even entire chapters, had been omitted, and these he has restored.” He fails to mention that Pichon also had some severe reservations against the gothic type ”tout-à-fait de fantaisie” and almost illegible, and the many errors.