Un traité inédit d'autourserie et de fauconnerie en moyen français

Medieval treaties about birds hunting arouse the interest of historians and lexicographers since the 19th Century. However, many are still unpublished. One of them, an anonym, is kept at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris and is presented in the article below. It was probably copied in the 15th Century and written in northern France. It gives advices about the daily treatment of birds of prey. The treaty begins with hawking advices following with rubrics about falconry. Three other texts close to the treaty, allow supposing a French origin. On base of extracts, an overall view of the information is given: the acquisition and the moulting of the bird, its daily diet, the description of the diseases, and the treatment to take care and maintain the bird in good form. The interest is turned towards the difficulty to identify with precision the diseases and the quoted herbs. Several arguments let us say that the treaty was probably written by a practitioner.