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[HISTORY] - Falcons and Hounds: The Hierakosophion — First Edition (Paris, 1612) - HIERAKOSOPHION. Rei Accipitrariae scriptores nunc primum editi. Accessit KUNOSOPHION. Liber de cura canum. Ex biblioth. Regia Medicea. (Hoc volumine continentur 'Demetrii Constantinop. de re accipitraria liber, a Petro Gillio latine redditus; Alius liber de re accipitraria, latine redditus ab eodem P. Gillio; Libellus de cura canum, latine versus ab Andrea Aurifabro Vratislavienssi medico; Epistola Aquilae Symmachi et Theodotionis ad Ptolemaeum regem Aegypti, de re accipitraria, catalanica lingua; De diversis generibus falconum, sive accipitrum (...) Ex libro incerti auctoris, De Natura Rerum; Jacobi-Augusti Thuani de re accipitraria libri III; Hier. Fracastorii Alcon, sive de cura canum venaticorum) (Edidit N. Rigault). Paris (Lutetiae), Sumptibus Hieronymi Drouart, 1612.. 4to, contemporary vellum, with title on later label at spine, 3 parts in 1 volume, woodcut printer's device on the title, title partly printed in red, text printed in Greek and latin; Pp. (16 nn.), 278, (16 nn. for index), (2 blanks); (12 nn.), 211, (1 blank); 120. First Edition of some Byzantine treatises on the art of falconry and hunting with dogs, together with similar texts on hunting. (Ref: J.E. Harting, 'Bibliotheca Accipitraria', London 1891, no.s 316 & 327 & 223; Schweiger 1,358; Hoffmann 1,500; Brunet 5,244/45: 'Recueil recherché et dont les exemplaires sont rares'; Graesse 6/1,331; Ebert 5916). Of this edition there are also copies with the imprint: 'Sumptibus Sebastiani Cramoisy'. This edition contains 7 texts, 5 of them devoted to the catching, nursing and training, and the health of birds of prey, such as hawks and falcons, for the hunting of small game, and 2 texts devoted to hunting-dogs. They were collected and edited by the French classical scholar Nicolaus Rigaltius, or Nicolas Rigault 1577-1654, who was employed in the Bibliothèque Royale from 1604. The first part, p. 1-278, contains a Greek corpus of 3 treatises from 2 manuscripts in the Bibliothèque Royale. All 3 are attributed to the Byzantine scholar, and perhaps court physician of the emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, Demetrius Pepagomenus Constantinopolitanus, 1200-1300, since they all have the name of Demetrius Constantinopolitanus at the commencement. The first 2 treatises are 'editiones principes', they are on hawks (accipitres in Latin, hierakes in Greek).