DAME JULIANA: THE ANGLING TREATYSE AND ITS MYSTERIES. By Frederick Buller and Hugh Falkus. Standard limited edition.

2001 1st edition. 8vo (160 x 240mm). Ppx,213,ad. Colour plates by Denys Ovenden, colour and b/w photographs, illustrations. Dark red bonded leather gilt, silk marker. One of 350 numbered copies.

The entire 500-year history of British angling literature is in a direct line of descent from a book that has caused more controversy than any other since. Almost nothing is known with certainty about The Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle. Some 30 years ago Hugh Falkus and Fred Buller set out to see what they could make of this. Despite being written in the rather obscure vocabulary and syntax of the 15th century, they knew that the text was insightful and intelligent. The author knew her or his subject and wrote from experience and with considerable wisdom. After rendering the text into modern English, they explored the evidence for and against the various opinions of the book's origins. Broadly favouring the traditional interpretations, they found fascinating reasons for accepting that it could have been written by "The Dame" at Sopwell, near the City of St. Albans. All of this has now been put together by Fred Buller, with help from Jack Heddon, Malcolm Greenhalgh, David Beazley, Professor Stephen Downes and Denys Ovenden. The result is a volume which celebrates the first, and in the opinion of some, the most significant book on angling in English or any other language.