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 340 THE ' DE ARTE VENANDI CUM AVIBUS ' July these illustrations rest upon a close and faithful study of bird life, and thus form an essential part of the work which they accompany. Whatever the occasion for the separate preservation of the first two books, the six books of the De Arte form a unit. After an introductory chapter on falconry as the noblest of arts, a subject for elaborate debate on the part of later writers, 1 the first book is a general treatise on the habits and structure of birds. Book ii then deals with birds of prey, their capture and training. The third book explains the different kinds of lures and their uses. The three remaining books describe, in parallel fashion, the practice of hunting cranes with gerfaloons (iv), herons with the sacred falcon (v), and water birds with smaller types of falcons (vi). The style and manner of treatment are the same throughout. There are also several cross references. Thus the first book refers to the second and others, 2 the second to those which follow. 3 The preface to the second gives the plan of the later books. 4 Book ii. 71 refers forward to the book on gerfalcons. 5 The opening of the third book refers to the preface. 6 Book iv refers back to book i, 7 and repeats an interesting observation already made in the earlier book. 8 Book v refers also to book i. 9 Nevertheless it is also apparent that we have not the complete work as the author planned it, probably not even as he executed it. Besides the subjects actually treated in the following books, the preface to book ii promises an account of the care of .birds during moulting and of the treatment of their diseases. 10 None noted by Erbach in his figures 14 and 15 does not seem to me sufficient to indicate the derivation of m from another original than M. 1 Cf. Werth, Zeitschrift fur Romanische Philologie, xii. 391 f. 2 ' De horum autem falconum et accipitrum modis plenius et evidentius mani- festatur in secundo tractatu et aliis in quibus nostra intentio per se super eos descendit,' MS. B, pp. 34 f. 3 ' In hoc tractatu secundo et in ceteris accedemus,' MS. M, fo. 45 v ; MS. B» p. 140 ; the edition (Schneider, p. 69) omits ' et in ceteris '. Liber is regularly- used of the work as a whole, and tractalus of the individual books which com- pose it ; but MS. B, p. 282, has ' ut in 2° libro huius operis diximus '. 4 MS. M, fo. 46v. MS. B, pp. 142 f., ed. Schneider, p. 70. 6 * Dicitur plene in tractatu de venatione girofalconis ad grues,' MS. M, fo. 98 ; MS. B, p. 241, ed. Schneider, p. 152. Note that this remains in the two-book text. 6 ' Intentio nostra ita ut in principio diximus est docere venationes quas faciunt homines cum avibus rapacibus ad predandum non rapaces,' MS. B, p. 281. 7 ' Ut dictum est in capitulo de reditu avium,' MS. B, p. 359. Cf. the reference to bk. iv on cranes in i. 55 (MS. M, fo. 42, ed. Schneider, p. 64). 8 MS. B, pp. 54 f., repeated p. 361. See the passage below, p. 343. 9 ' Nidificant autem in canetis paludum et in arboribus prope aquas ut in primo tractatu dictum est,' MS. B, p. 440, where the reference is to the treatment of nesting on pp. 60 ff. , where there is a lacuna in M and the editions. 10 ' Quedam in conservando sanas etiam quando iam mutant pennas, ut domuncula que dicitur muta, et plumas et multe medicinarum, quedam in curando egrotas ut ipse medicine et vasa necessaria ad dandum ipsas medicinas ; de singulis horum instrumen- torum dicetur ubi convenict,' MS. M, fo. 46 v ; MS. B, p. 143, ed. Schneider, p. 70.