First Italian edition of a poem about falconry, in hexameters, here including the Latin original and another instructional poem by P.A. Bargeo. "First and best Italian edition of de Thous famous Latin poem on hawking with an Italian translation" (Schwerdt). The famous statesman and bibliophile J. A. de Thou (1553-1617), a great falconry enthusiast based the poem on his own observations. He began work on it by 1574, but wrote it mostly during his travels through France, Italy and Germany in 1581. He published a preliminary version under the title Hieracosophioy, sive De venatione per accipitres (Hieracosophion) in 1582, but expanded and revised it extensively for the 1584 edition (adding the third book) and continued to make smaller revisions to at least 1587. It was the first detailed scholarly account of falconry and remains a classic of the genre. The nine engraved vignettes in the present edition include four large falconry-themed headpieces. The portrait shows Cardinal de Beauveau (engraved by R. Pozzi after A. David). Finely printed in two columns on laid papier.
With a contemporary ink inscription on the first title-page: "ex dono Auctoris", and from the collection of James Edmund Harting (1841-1928), author of the authoritative falconry bibliography Bibliotheca accipitraria, cited in any good description of a falconry publication, with his engraved armorial bookplate on the front paste-down. Somewater stains and foxing. Otherwise in good condition and wholly untrimmed. Harting 284; S. Kinser, Works of Jacques-Auguste de Thou, pp. 202, 205-208, this ed. p. 206; Schwerdt, p. 261; Thiébaud 898 ("belle édition"); for the author and text, see also: Ingrid de Smet & Roger Johnson, Thuanus: the making of Jacques-Auguste de Thou, pp. 52-66.