The Origins of Angling - Hardcover

An annotated facsimile of Juliana Berners's Treatise, with fly patterns and a translation from Old English.

What is thought to be the first published essay on sport fishing - The Treatise of Fishing with an Angle, first printed in 1496 - is also believed to have been written by a woman: Dame Juliana Berners, by legend a nun and a noblewoman. This important book attempts to solve the mystery of the sporting nun and her pioneering work, and to bring the treatise itself back for the modern reader in modern idiom.The book naturally evolves into two parts. First, modernized versions of the original manuscript and the first printed version, for the reader who has a general interest in fishing and hunting and a curiosity about the origins of the style and the state of mind of sport. Second, facsimiles and transcripts (on facing pages) of the Treatise; a description and history of the manuscript; and a comparison of manuscript and printed text, for addicts of fishing, old manuscripts, comparative texts, minutiae of various kinds, and early modern English.The Origins of Angling is an appreciation of the first known piece of writing in English on sport fishing - its history, and its influence on the sport as it is practiced today. (81/4 X 11, 296 pages, color photos, illustrations, manuscript reproductions)