ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes developments in medieval writings about birds of prey, and shall try to place these developments in the general context of changing medieval views of the natural world. The study of the sport of falconry provides a useful perspective on changes in these viewpoints over time. The practical need and desire to control nature can be seen in such phenomena as writings on hawk medicine and changes in falconry-training techniques. The earliest surviving Western work on falconry comes from a tenth-century fragment dealing with remedies for various ailments of hawks. Medieval development in both practical and scientific views of nature culminates in the De arte venandi cum avibus of Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen—probably the most remarkable medieval work on natural history. A great deal has been written about the medieval encyclopedists and their overall methods and purposes.
