of this is found in the six-book text, although it was common in works on falconry. There are also specific references in the text[1] to a subsequent discussion of moulting which does not appear. Moreover the author three times promises a book on hawks, which was evidently to be a separate work.[2] Now Albertus Magnus cites the experta Frederici imperatoris on the care of hawks,[3] as well as a passage on black falcons[4] which cannot be found in the present text, and in each case he refers at the same time to the dicta of King Roger's falconer, William, of whom we shall have more to say. Possibly there are still discoveries of Frederician material to be made in these directions. In view of Manfred's statement about blank pages and loose notes, it is quite probable that the emperor's work did not reach a final official form, a conclusion which would agree with the troubled character of Frederick's later years and the suddenness of his death. A separate treatise on other forms of hunting which he promised after the completion of this[5] was probably not written, if indeed it was ever begun.
That Frederick himself was the author can no longer be doubted. Apart from the citations by Albertus Magnus[6] and the specific mention by Nicholas Of Iamsilla,[7] we have the explicit words of Manfred mentioning dominus pater noster as the author, as well as the reference to himself in the third person as imperatoris huius libri autoris fllius.[8] Furthermore, Frederick appears as the author in the preface, as printed below, and in the further prefatory matter.[9] If he did not actually write the book with his own hand, he at least directed its composition and dictated the greater part of its substance.
- ↑ MS. M, fo. 45; MS. B, p. 138, ed. Schneider, p. 68. Also the following from bk. iii: 'dicemus infra quando dicemus de muta et de omni eo quod convenit mutationi,' MS. B, p. 324.
- ↑ MS. M, fos. 49, 57, 58ᵛ, ed. Schneider, pp. 75, 89, 92.
- ↑ De Animalibus, xxiii, c. 40, par. 20 (Opera, ed. Paris, 1891, xii. 477). Stadler's new edition of the De Animalibus from the original Cologne MS. (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters, xv, Münster, 1916 ff.) has now reached this point (p. 1481).
- ↑ Ibid. par. 10, ed. Stadler, p. 1465.
- ↑ 'De reliquis vero venationibus precipue de illis in quibus nobiles delectantur vita comite post complementum huius opens dicetur a nobis,' MS. M, fo. 3, ed. Schneider, p. 4.
- ↑ De Animalibus, xxiii, c. 40, pars. 10, 20, ed. Stadler, pp. 1465, 1478, 1481.
- ↑ 'Ipse quoque imperator de ingenti sui perspicacite, que precipue circa scientiam naturalem vigebat, librum composuit de natura et cura avium in quo manifeste patet in quantum ipse imperator studiosus fuerit philosophie,' Muratori, Scriptores, viii. 496.
- ↑ Supra, pp. 337 f.
- ↑ 'Actor est vir inquisitor et sapientie amator divus Augustus Fredericus secundus Romanorum imperator Ierusalem et Sicilie rex. … Libri titulus talis est, Liber divi Augusti Frederici secundi Romanorum imperatoris Ierusalem et Sicilie regis de arte venandi cum avibus,' MS. M, fo. 1ᵛ, ed. Schneider, p. 2.
