The Middle English text of "The art of hunting" by William Twiti

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This volume offers the first scholarly edition of a little-known fifteenth-century translation of William Twiti's Anglo-Norman prose treatise on hunting, 'L'art de venerie', the earliest manual on the sport composed in England. The text, preserved in a single manuscript in Ashton-under-Lyne, surpasses the only other Middle English translation known to scholars, which is an amplified yet incoherent version found in BL, MS Cotton Vespasian B XII. It also provides a more accurate rendition than the altered redaction known as 'The Craft of Venery', often confused with Twiti's original. Previous editors, including Gunnar Tilander and Bror Danielsson, overlooked the Ashton translation and based their work on the problematic Cottonian text or 'The Craft of Venery'. This volume presents the Ashton translation alongside a parallel Anglo-French text edited from Gonville and Caius College MS 424/448, followed by corrected editions of the Cottonian text and 'The Craft of Venery'. Each text is accompanied by comprehensive notes and an integrated glossary that enhances definitions beyond those in the 'Oxford English Dictionary' and the 'Middle English Dictionary'.