The Master of Game
William Adolf Baillie Grohman and Florence Baillie-Grohman | |
Country | England |
---|---|
Language | Middle English |
Subject | Medieval hunting |
Genre | hunting treatise |
Publication date | 1413, 1904 |
799.2 |
The Master of Game is a medieval hunting treatise translated into English ( see
York was Henry IV's Master of the Hart Hounds. Between 1406 and 1413 he translated and dedicated to the Prince of Wales the Livre de Chasse of Gaston III, Count of Foix, one of the most famous of the hunting treatises of the Middle Ages, to which he added five chapters of his own, the English version being known as The Master of Game.
It is considered to be the oldest English-language book on hunting.[1][2] The Master of Game was first printed in 1904 in modernised English by William and Florence Baillie-Grohman, with an essay on medieval hunting, and a foreword by then-American President and noted hunter Theodore Roosevelt.
Overview
Written between 1406 and 1413 by Edward, second Duke of York, The Master of Game is mostly a translation of an earlier work by
Several chapters from the previous work were also omitted, including sections on the ibex and the reindeer which were not relevant quarry for medieval Englishmen.[8] Other chapters omitted included those on trapping and the conduct of hunts in France,[7] including an early French description of a modest form of coursing hares for the pot, a la croupie, by a couple of men and their greyhounds.[9]
Modern publication
The work was first published as a printed work in 1904, with multiple later editions, including a foreword by
The text was presented for the first time as a scholarly collation of all the existing manuscripts, in modern English, analysed in comparison to the original French, as an assessment of literary relations, by James I. McNelis III.[11]
References
- ISBN 97838253551973825355195
- ^ a b "The master of game / by Edward, second Duke of York. the oldest English book on hunting / edited by Wm. A. and F. Baillie-Grohman; with a foreword by Theodore Roosevelt". National Library of Australia Catalogue. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
- ^ Of its thirty-six chapters only five are original; the Duke's text is printed in italics in the 1904 edition, which is drawn from the early-15th-century Cottonian MS Vespasian B, xii.
- ISBN 0-415-26292-5. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
- ISBN 0-415-14369-1. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
- ^ a b "England's Oldest Book on Hunting" (PDF). The New York Times. 5 December 1909. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
- ^ ISBN 0-85991-379-1. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
- ^ a b Keen, Maureen (15 December 2005). "Hoo sto ho sto mon amy". London Review of Books. p. 17. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
- ^ Gaston Phébus Livre de Chasse Tillander, G. Cynegetica XVIII Karlshamn, 1971, Ch. 84, p. 288
- ISBN 9781116053418. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
- ^ McNelis, James I. III. "The Uncollated Manuscripts of The Master of Game: Towards a New Edition" (PhD diss., Univ. of Washington, 1996).
External links
- The Master of Game at Internet Archive (1904 editions illustrated)
- Project Gutenberg edition