FERREIRA'S FALCONRY: BEING A TRANSLATION FROM THE PORTUGUESE OF "ARTE DA CACA DE ALTANERIA". By Diogo Fernandes Ferreira. Lisbon 1616. Made by Anthony Jack. President of the British Falconers' Club 1971-1994.

(1616) 1996 1st edition thus. 8vo (142 x 226mm). Ppx,262. Not illustrated. Bibliography. Green boards, spine and upper board titled in gilt. One of 900 copies.

"'Arte da Caca de Altaneria' was first published in Lisbon in 1616. The author tells us that he was then sixty years of age... He says that his father was falconer to the King of Portugal's son, and he himself started as a page in the household of the Prior of Crato, looking after his hawks. Later in life he seems to have become a skilled and respected yeoman falconer who earned his living by flying and selling hawks. His brothers were falconers. His father and grandfather had been falconers before him, and he tells us, "I have not stopped using my skills since I was a child." It is plain from his book that he knew Spain and Spanish falconers, so that he was heir to a large spoken and family tradition. ...To me [this book] reads as the work of a thoroughly practical expert putting down his own ideas. [Here is] one of the most observant and lively books on birds and falconry that has ever been written. Ferreira is in the true, high tradition of falconry, like the Emperor Frederick, ...The ornithological part of his work covers nesting, behaviour, and migration. He is often centuries before his time, ...His stories about stonechats and wrynecks are a delight. His advice on training and flying hawks is almost beyond praise..." Essential reading.