The craft of venery, circa 1450.

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The craft of venery, circa 1450.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/701906766

Manuscript copy of William Twiti's The craft of venery, a treatise on hunting derived from Twiti's L'Art de vénerie. The text was copied circa 1450 by John Porter, M.P. of Worcester, England. According to Scott-Macnab, the manuscript is "a considerably modified redaction of Twiti's original treatise [L'Art de vénerie] with additions from three other sources. The primary Middle English text deriving from LAV [L'Art de vénerie] appears to be based on an independent translation (Epsilon) ... This has been abridged, reordered and interspersed with the majority of the Giffard-additions found in C [British Library, MS Cotton Vespasian B XII] ... and then supplemented with further information found nowhere else ...". Additions to the present manuscript found in no other contemporary manuscripts include passages on blowing the "prise", an account of fox-hunting, and a section on hunting with bow and stably (in which deer are driven past ready bowmen). The manuscript is written in pen and dark brown ink, in Porter's hand throughout, without rubrication or decoration. According to Scott-Macnab, "The writing is generally carefully executed, with sensible and useful punctuation, and occasional corrections ... Other evidence indicates that Porter was copying from an English source, rather than translating ..."

1 v. (7 p.) ; 23 cm.

Yale Center for British Art

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SNAC Resource ID: 8011268

Related Entities

There are 3 Entities related to this resource.

Porter, John, fl. 1445-1485.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vh6dm2 (person)

Not much is known about John Porter, M.P. of Worcester, England. His memorandum on leaves 67v-69v of the present manuscript states that he was elected a "fellow-burgess" for the city of Worcester on 6 February 1447 and that he arrived at the parliament of Bury six days later. From the description of John Porter manuscript, circa 1450. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 701906796 ...

Twiti, William, -1328

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xh0ggf (person)

William Twiti was huntsman for King Edward II (1284-1327). Twiti's L'Art de vénerie (or the The art of hunting), originally composed in Anglo-Norman French, is considered the first work on hunting to be written in England and an important source for later writers on hunting (parts of it appear in The boke of St. Albans of 1486). Like Henri de Ferrières's Le livre du Roy Modus et de la Royne Racio, Twiti's treatise takes the form of a dialogue in which the huntsman answers question...

British Library

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xf1qrm (corporateBody)