56 INTRODUCTION 
Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle, printed at Westminster by 
Wynkyn de Worde in 1496 as part of the second edition of 
The Boke of St. Albans. Whether, as has been commonly 
supposed, Dame Juliana Berners wrote it, or whether any 
such lady ever existed, are points of controversy, but that 
The Treatyse was not an immaculate. conception, without 
parents or ancestors, can be reasonably proved by its reference 
to earlier writers on fishing, and to its ‘‘ these ben the xii flies 
ye shall use ” being introduced as a precept of practice rather 
than a revelation of invention. 
If few the forbears of what some term “not only the 
first angling manual in England, but also the first practical 
work written in any language,” its vitality and its prolific 
progeny admit of no doubt. According to Mr. A. Lang (who 
accounts for the startling fact by the increased number of 
people able to read owing to the spread of education) no less 
than ten editions of The Boke were issued within four years of 
publication, while Dr. Turrell limits himself to fourteen 
undated editions between 1500 and 1596. 
Whatever the number of the editions, the need for and the 
vitality of The Treatyse is demonstrated by the fact that for 
over a hundred years no new work on Angling was printed in 
England, and between it and The Compleat Angler—a space of 
over one hundred and fifty years—there occur but four books 
on the subject.! To its prolific progeny, the Bibliotheca 
Piscatoria bears witness? in its catalogue of some fifteen 
hundred authors and of countless books, MSS. etc. 
We owe, it is said, this voluminous literature to the 
geographical position of England, which lends itself very 
favourably to the pursuit of all kinds of fishing. Can we, also, 
flatteringly add the other factor of Lacépede’s dictum, “Il y 
a cette différence entre la chasse et la péche, que cette derniére 
convient aux peuples les plus civilisés ? ’’ 
But the pursuit of fishing did not prevail in early England 
1 Cf. M.G. Watkins, Introduction to the Treatyse, etc. (London, 1880), p. xi. 
2 It enumerates 3158 distinct editions of 2148 different fishing works 
published before 1883. The Supplement issued by Mr. R. B. Marston in 1901 
gives 1200 more. Mr. Eric Parker’s delightsome and pocket-companionable 
An Angler's Garland, London, 1920, gives many happy extracts from the 
fifteen hundred, and present-day writers. 
