in the colloquy states that he prefers
fishing in the river to fishing in the sea. Ascribed to the 13th or
14th century is a Latin poem _De Vetula_, whose author was apparently
Richard de Fournival. It contains a passage on angling, and was placed
to the credit of Ovid when first printed (c. 1470). A manuscript in
the British museum, _Comptes des pecheries de l'eglise de Troyes_
(A.D. 1349-1413), gives a minute account of the fisheries with the
weights of fish captured and the expenses of working. There is,
however, practically nothing else of importance till we come to
the first printed book on angling (a translation of Oppian, 1478,
excepted), and so to the beginning of the literature proper. This
first book was a little volume printed in Antwerp probably in 1492 at
the press of Matthias van der Goes. In size it is little more than a
pamphlet, and it treats of birds as well as fish:--_Dit Boecxken leert
hoe men mach Voghelen ... ende ... visschen vangen metten kanden. Ende
oeck andersins...._ ("This book teaches how one may catch birds ...
and ... fish with the hands, and also otherwise"). Only one copy
apparently survives, in the Denison library, and a translation
privately printed for Mr. Alfred Denison in 1872 was limited to
twenty-five copies. At least two other editions of the book appeared
in Flemish, and it also made its way, in 1502, to Germany, where,
translated and with certain alterations and additions, it seems
to have been re-issued frequently. Next in date comes the famous
_Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle_, printed at Westminster by
Wynkyn de Worde in 1496 as a part of the second edition of _The Book
of St. Albans_. The treatise is for this reason associated with the
name of Dame Juliana Berners, but that somewhat dubious compiler
can have had nothing whatever to do with it. The treatise is almost
certainly a compilation from some earlier work on angling ("bokes of
credence" are mentioned in its text), possibly from a manuscript of
the earlier part of the 15th century, of which a portion is preserved
in the Denison collection. This was published in 1883 by Mr. Thomas
Satchell under the title _An Older Form of the Treatyse of Fysshynge
wyth an Angle_. But it is also possible that a still older work was
the parent of both books, for it has been held that the manuscript is
an independent version. However this may be, it is certain that the
treatise itself has been the parent of many other works. Many of