Fishers' Craft and Lettered Art
Tracts on Fishing from the End of the Middle Ages
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of Toronto Press
Published:13th Sep '97
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
'Neither scholars nor literate anglers should miss this milestone work. It opens a bright window on the early culture, context, and practice of fishing, and stands as an eloquent challenge to other researchers to expand the long-neglected study of this important part of European life.' -- Paul Schullery, former director, The American Museum of Fly Fishing, and author of American Fly Fishing: A History.
An edition and translation of three late medieval tracts on fishing: "How to Catch a Fish" (Heidelberg, 1493); "Tegernsee Fishing Advice" (Bavaria, ca. 1500); and "Dialogue Between a Hunter and a Fisher" by the Aragonese Fernando Basurto (1539).
Fishers' Craft and Lettered Art provides editions, English translations, and analysis from social, cultural, and environmental perspectives of the three oldest European extended tracts on fishing. Richard Hoffmann discusses the history of fishing in popular culture and outlines the economic and ecologic considerations needed to examine and understand the fishing manuals. Hoffmann further explores how continental fishing traditions were conveyed from oral craft practice into printed culture, and proposes that these manuals demonstrate a lively and complex interaction between written texts and popular culture. The tracts are presented in their original languages - Spanish and German - with facing page translations. Close attention is paid to original setting, functions, and possible range of readings, with detailed explanatory notes to help modern fishers and historians.
Fishers' Craft and Lettered Art is a fascinating look at one vital aspect of everyday life at the end of the Middle Ages.
'Appeals to diverse readers' interests. There is no question that the author accomplishes his goal to present critical editions of various fishers' tracts from the Late Middle Ages to the Renaissance. His translations also prove to be of first rate, and so his in-depth investigation of fishing as a craft during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age. At the same time Hoffmann never forgets that also lay people, especially fishing enthusiasts, might read his book, hence never relents in his efforts to describe his subject matter in a very clear, easily readable fashion understandable both for the expert and the lay person.'
-- Albrecht Classen * The Medieval Review *"..Fisher's Craft and Lettered Art is bound to delight and inform readers, whether they be anglers or not. Those who bring to it an acquaintance with fish and fishing will gain from its historical insights, and those whose interest is more historical or academic will come away with a greater appreciation of the medieval life and mind.'
-- Michael Todd * York University GazetISBN: 9780802078537
Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 28mm
Weight: 640g
408 pages