INTROD UCTION. 



comprehensive is certainly that of Schlegel ; but although 

 extensive as compared with other lists of the kind, it is con- 

 spicuously deficient in regard to the titles of English, French, 

 and German works on Falconry ; not because many of these 

 were printed after Schlegel's Traite had appeared (which 

 would have furnished a sufficient reason for their omission), 

 but because they were evidently unknown to him. 



In the present Bibliotheca Accipitraria, profiting by the 

 labours of my predecessors, and having made researches in all 

 directions, I have been able to set down 378 titles in nineteen 

 languages. These have been transcribed verbatim et literatim^ 

 and the various editions and translations indicated. In the 

 course of twenty years' collecting, the majority of the books 

 have been either procured, or seen, and carefully examined ; 

 and it is believed that no printed work of any importance has 

 escaped notice. Incidentally a great number of MSS. have 

 been referred to, and the libraries in which they are preserved 

 indicated ; but they have not been catalogued for two reasons. 

 In the first place, I have already given an account of the Eng- 

 lish MSS, relating to Falconry in my Introduction to an Eliza- 

 bethan treatise on the Sparrow-hawk and Goshawk (No. 81 

 of the present Bibliotheca) ; and, in the next place, no proper 

 catalogue of existing MSS. on the subject in other languages 

 could be prepared without making a tour of the principal 

 Continental libraries, and devoting a considerable time to an 

 examination of the originals. It has been thought desirable, 

 however, to state where MSS. of importance are deposited, so 

 that those who have the leisure and inclination to examine them 

 may be guided in their research. This information will be found 

 in the critical notes which follow the titles, where also the 

 reader will often discover some account of the authors of im- 

 portant works, with hints as to the sources of their inspiration. 

 In a few cases the extreme rarity of a treatise, or the 

 trouble which would be entailed upon those who would 

 attempt the perusal of the original, has suggested a translation 

 of so much as was deemed necessary to convey an accurate 

 notion of the contents. For example, a precis is given (pp. 

 67-71) of the rare Livredu Faulcon (c. i486) — of which no 

 English translation exists — with quotations which sufficiently 



