1600s Garden with gentlemen in a punt & dogs on the terrace

Isaak de Moucheron (Dutch, 1667-1744) Garden terrace and lake with columns, and 2 hounds in the foreground classical figures at left, two figures in a punt on an ornamental lake behind and avenues of trees beyond

Man, Women, Dogs, & Bird in early 1600s Garden

Crispin de Passe (1565-1637), Hortus Voluptatum - Lady and Gentleman Seated in a Garden

15C Forests, Chases, & Gameparks for Hunting by the Elites

Hunting deer, 15C Illuminated Manuscript

In the Middle Ages, hunting was an activity for elites. Hunting was the privilege of the nobility, closely linked to land ownership.  When agriculture emerged in the Neolithic era, active livestock farming relegated hunting to a secondary role. Hunting became primarily a defensive practice aimed at protecting farmers’ crops from hungry or destructive wild animals. While crops & livestock farming covered people’s basic dietary needs, hunting offered a wider choice of meat to the privileged classes. Noblemen performed necessary management of their lands & the peasants in their employ. They raised funding for military expeditions & social events, practiced horseback riding, hunting, & hawking. Hunting had a dual symbolic & social significance. Being invited to hunt with the King was one of the court’s great honors. In Europe, laws were devised to regulate hunting on royal territory. The elites could show off  their abilities as warriors through hunting. More than a pastime, it was an important arena for social interaction, essential training for war, & a gauge  of nobility.  Local lords maintained & monopolized the gameparks & the taking of big game in forest reserves & small game in warrens. These large sanctuaries of woodland—essentially the royal forest—where populations of game animals were kept & watched over by gamekeepers. Here the peasantry could not hunt, poaching being subject to severe punishment. The lower classes mostly had to content themselves with snaring birds & smaller game outside of forest reserves & warrens.  By the 16C, most areas of land reserved for hunting of game were of 3 kinds, according to their degree of enclosure & being subject to Forest Laws: Forests, large unenclosed areas of wilderness; Chases, which normally belonged to nobles rather than the crown; & Parks, which were enclosed & not subject to Forest Laws.

The Book of the Hunt of King Modus & Queen Ratio after 1455

Piero de' Crescenzi (1233-1321) wrote of Hunting in Book 10 of his Liber ruralium commodorum 1304-09. He advised that the gamepark should be stocked with hare, roe deer, red deer, wild boar, rabbits.  He recommended the English, French, & Spanish hare specifically.  He wrote of hunting dogs & their dietary recommendations for each season & even times of the day to feed them.  Those participating in "the hunt" lived with unique vocabularies, customs, & ancient rituals.

Piero de' Crescenzi (1233-1321) Liber ruralium commodorum 1304-09. Illuminator - Master of Fitzwilliam MS. 268 - 1470-1485 - French. Le livre des prouffis champestres et ruraux, Book 10 On hunting (folio 265r)

The Book of the Hunt of King Modus & Queen Ratio after 1455

The Book of the Hunt of King Modus & Queen Ratio after 1455

May - Falconry - Using a bird to help hunting other birds. Agricultural calendar from a manuscript of Piero de' Crescenzi (1233-1321) written c. 1306. Illumination from The Boccaccio Master Geneva (active between 1448-75) Illustration 1470-75

The Book of the Hunt of King Modus & Queen Ratio after 1455

Egerton Book of Hours Wolfgang Beurer (15C) Bear Hunting

The Book of the Hunt of King Modus & Queen Ratio after 1455

Egerton Book of Hours Wolfgang Beurer (15C) Boar Hunting

The Book of the Hunt of King Modus & Queen Ratio after 1455

Egerton Book of Hours Wolfgang Beurer (15C) Hare Hunting

Egerton Book of Hours Wolfgang Beurer (15C) Hunting

The Book of the Hunt of King Modus & Queen Ratio after 1455

Egerton Book of Hours Wolfgang Beurer (15C) Hunting

See
Joyce Salisbury, The Beast Within. Animals in the Middle Ages (New York, 1994).

Chasse L.-J. Bord and J.-P. Mugg, La chasse au Moyen Age. Occident latin, Ve–XVe siècle (Paris, 2008).

Robert Delort, Le commerce des fourrures en Occident à la fin du Moyen Age ,2 vols. (Rome, 1978).

HH J. Cummins, The Hound and the Hawk. The Art of Medieval Hunting (London, 2001).

Hunting A. Smets and B. V an den Abeele, “Medieval Hunting” in  Animals in the Medieval Age (Oxford, 2011).

Hannele Klemettilä, Animals and Hunters in the Late Middle Ages (Routledge, 2015)

Edward of Norwich, The Master of Game , ed. W. Baillie-Grohman and F. Baillie-Grohman (Philadelphia, 2005).

MH R. Almond, Medieval Hunting (Phoenix Mill, 2003).

Poétique A. Strubel and C. de Saulnier, La poétique de la chasse au Moyen Age: Les livres de chasse du XIVe siècle (Paris, 1994).

Dogs in Gardens & Gameparks from illuminations, tapestries, & even playing cards...

 Museum Meermanno, MMW, 10 B 25, Folio 15v

 15th century tapestry - detail of a dog

A Dog from the tapestry series The Lady and the Unicorn.

Unicorn tapestries hanging in the Queen’s Inner Hall of the Palace at Stirling Castle.

 A Mounted Battle with Gillion and Ertan the Saracen (detail), Lieven van Lathem, after 1464

 Detail from Diana and her maidens hunting in L'Epitre Othea, c 1410-14

Dog (from Historia Plantarum, ms. 459, Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome)

 Domenico Cavalca , Vite di Santi Padri. Domenico Cavalca. Auteur du texte 1401-1500

Errol Le Cain illustration for The Thorn Rose Detail

Gualenghi-d'Este Hours Taddeo Crivelli, illuminator; Guglielmo Giraldi, illuminator Italian, Ferrara, about 1469

Loyset Liedet, (active 1448-1478), The Garden of Love, Vellum, Dimensions unknown, Paris, Bibliotheque de I'Arsenat

 Medieval Bestiary Dog

 The Annunciation to the Shepherds (detail), Spitz Master, c1420

Taddeo Crivelli, white sleeping dog from the Bible of Borso d'Este, 1455