354 THE 'DE ARTE VENANDI CUM AVIBUS' July a register for a few months of 1239-40 has forty entries concern- ing falcons, mentioning by name more than fifty of the emperor's falconers. 1 Thus in November 1239 he writes from Lodi to his superintendent of buildings in Sicily thanking him for informa- tion concerning the haunts and nests of herons, which the emperor longs to see for himself. 2 From Cremona he sends to his falconer Enzio for a report on his falcons, how many there are and in what condition, and especially concerning those captured at Malta and the wild ones taken during the season 3 ; he orders another to await him with hawks at Pisa, 4 while he sends to Apulia for two hawks just brought by the emissaries of Michael Kom- nenos. 5 After Christmas he sends for two sacred falcons, the one called ' Saxo ' and another good bird. 6 Although winter is not so good a season for such game, 7 he writes from Gubbio in January to his falconer Sardus that he is taking many fat cranes and keeping the legs as the portion of the absent falconer, who should come at once 8 to that noblest of sports, the hunting of cranes with gerfalcons, which the emperor describes in his fourth book. 9 The next day he sends a valet for training peregrine falcons in the Sicilian kingdom, 10 and two days later sends from Foligno for three falcons and a turziolus. 11 Ten days thereafter he sends falcons and dogs back to the south, 12 and various orders provide for wages and equipment of falconers. 13 In February he is con- cerned with the moulting of falcons, which are distributed among his barons to be kept during that period. 14 In March we read of the training of falcons in the south. 15 In May the emperor, once more in the Capitanata, sends nineteen falconers to Malta for 1 Including Master Walter Anglicus and his son William : Bohmer-Ficker, Regesta Imperii, nos. 2857, 3082. 2 ' De sollicitudine et labore quern assumpsisti super inveniendis ayris hayronum et locis ubi degunt te duximus commendandum, quod excellentia nostra satis delectat audire nee minus presentialiter videre peroptat ' : Huillard-Breholles, Historia diplomatics v. 510 ; Bohmer-Ficker, no. 2566. Cf. the De Arte, MS. B, p. 442 : ' In fine vero autumpni et per hyemem magna copia ayronum invenitur in calidis regionis [sic] ad quas confugerunt propter cibum acquirendum sibi et propter frigus . . . et maxime habundant in regionibus Egypti.' 3 Bohmer-Ficker, no. 2584. Besides the entries concerning falcoW; there are many respecting dogs and hunting leopards, e.g. nos. 2661, 2662, 2709, 2751, 2783, 2785, 2811, 2882, 2932, 2944, 3029. 4 Ibid., no. 2585. 5 No. 2589. 6 No. 2668. 7 De Arte, iv (MS. B, pp. 359-61). 8 Bohmer-Ficker, no. 2745 ; cf. 2744. The hunting of cranes is also mentioned in no. 2814. 9 ' Grues sunt famosiores inter omnes aves non rapaces ad quas docentur capiendas aves rapaces, et girofalcus nobilior est avibus rapacibus et est avis que melius capit grues quam alii falcones et que melius volat ad ipsas,' MS. B, p. 282. 10 Bohmer-Ficker, no. 2749. 11 Ibid., no. 2753. 12 No. 2807. 13 Nos. 2539, 2591, 2680, 2706, 2744, 2814, 2817, 2856, 2857, 2863, 2907, 2929, 3082. 14 Nos. 2800, 2855, 2863, 2903. 15 No. 2907.
