DIT BOECXKEN.

(1492, 1872) 1978 new edition. 4to (205 x 287mm). Ppxiv,16,ii. Pages unnumbered. B/w engravings. Quarter bound in maroon morocco-grained leather, Swedish marbled paper-covered boards, spine titled in gilt.

"A literal translation into English of the earliest known book on fowling and fishing, written originally in Flemish and printed at Antwerp in the year 1492." Literally, "This little book". Originally published in Flemish by Matthias van der Goes, Antwerp 1492 under the title Dit Boecxken. This is a facsimile reprint of a privately published edition of 1872, by Alfred Denison, which was limited to 25 privately circulated copies. The Denison edition was more or less a facsimile, containing the orginal engravings, but with the text in English rather than the original Flemish. The translation is literally rendered, giving a very appropriate-sounding period feel to the text. According to Denison, Dit Boecxken was the earliest known publication dealing with fishing and field sports, on the grounds that the Treatise of Fishing with an Angle did not appear in the Book of St. Albans until the edition of 1496. * Edition limited to 150 copies, 125 of these were numbered and offered forsale, 25 unnumbered copies being retained. Quarter-bound in leather and marbled boards by A.F. Sismore, Secretary and Binder to the Honey Dun Press. This is an out-of-series un-numbered copy, signed by A.F. Sismore on the limitation page.