Izaak Walton’s 17th century book, The Complete Angler (1653), has gone down in history as one of the most famous treatises on fish and fishing. However, it was not the first of its kind. That honor goes to Dame Juliana Berners, a 15th century prioress of the Nunnery of Sopwell in Hertfordshire, England. In her introduction to A Treatyse on Fysshynge wyth an Angle (1496) she writes, “To the best of my moderate ability to form an opinion, the finest sport is fishing with a rod, line, and hook…If the angler happens to catch a fish, then surely no man is gladder in spirit than he.” Medieval depictions of fly fishing as a leisure sport can be dated back to the 13th century. Historian Richard C. Hoffmann speculated that the first was in an Arthurian legend. Over 200 years later, Dame Juliana included instructions in her treatise for making a nine-foot-long fishing rod, which kinds of bait to use, and when to use them. Doubts about Juliana’s existence and authorship of the Treatise were raised in the 19th century and she is still often dubbed a myth. However, in Reel Women (1995), Lyla Foggia examines the arguments and quotes Joan Wulff’s take that the treatise carries a distinct womanly perspective. She asserts, “Are we to believe that 500 years ago a woman would be credited with authoring a document she did not write—when it’s extraordinary enough that a woman would be credited at all?”
After building a sturdy rod out of willow branch, Dame Juliana goes on to discuss coloring fishing lines: “Aftur that ye have made yowr rodde ye must lern to colur your lynys of heyr in thys wise.” According to Juliana, a fisherman must acquire a round, white horsetail to make sets of six different colors of fishing lines: yellow, green, brown, tan, russet, and “dark colors.” To make a satisfactory green dye for lines to be used in “all clear waters from April to September,” one should simmer part of the horsetail in a quart of ale and a pound of alum. Remove the hair and, while it is drying, simmer two handfuls of wax in two quarts of water for half an hour. When this liquid turns yellow, the hair is again submerged, and a half pound of powdered copperas is added. One should boil this concoction until the hair becomes hard, removing it to cool for five or six hours. The hair proceeds to transform into a fine green shade as it dries.
Juliana notes that adding more vitriol or verdigris will make for an even better green. Verdigris was a green pigment used by artists across the medieval world. It is commonly found in illuminated manuscripts, including those held in the Toppan Rare Books Library collection. Because it is copper-based, studies of verdigris have shown that the color degrades over time. The effects vary depending on humidity levels, storage methods, and environmental conditions. Ironically, medieval artists knew how unstable verdigris green could be, but they used it anyway due to its beauty and vibrancy. Cennino Cennini wrote in The Craftsman’s Handbook, “A color known as verdigris is green. […] it is manufactured by alchemy, from copper and vinegar. This color is good on panel, tempered with size. Take care never to get it near white lead, for they are mortal enemies in every respect. […] it is beautiful to the eye, but it does not last.”
The prioress goes on to scrupulously describe fishing bait and hooks. Throughout this section, she references the use of earthworms and minnows, as well as the merits of bumblebees, butterflies, cherries, toasted brown bread smothered in honey, bacon fat, cheese, and hooks smeared with a paste of “black blood from the heart of a sheep” mixed with flour and honey. Medieval fishermen also constructed their own artificial flies out of wool, silk, hemp, peacock and jay feathers, and thread. These ingredients were mentioned in an anonymous tract titled “Medicina piscium” from the mid-15th century, and examples of artificial fly pattern recipes began to abound after 1490. In the final pages of the treatise, Dame Juliana lists the ingredients for making various fly patterns like the stone fly, wasp, and drake.
Within the treatise’s last few pages, Dame Juliana writes a final plea. She calls on all anglers to respect a fishermen’s moral code: never steal another man’s fish, respect other’s lands, do not take more fish than one needs, and fish only for the joy of one’s soul. Besides, “…if you act in the way that this treatise instructs you to, you will have no need to take another man’s fish, since you will have enough fish of your own catching…And it will be a great pleasure for you to see the good, bright, shining fishes that have been deceived by your skill and dragged to shore.”
Post contributed by Toppan Rare Books Library Archives Specialist Emma Comstock.
References
Banik, Gerhard. “Discoloration of Green Copper Pigments in Manuscripts and Works of Graphic Art.” Restaurator 10, no. 2 (1989): 61-73.
Berners, Juliana, Dame. An Older Form of the Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, attributed to Dame Juliana Barnes. Edited by Thomas Satchell. London: W. Satchell & Co., 1883. https://archive.org/details/an-older-form-of-the-treatyse-of-fysshynge-wyth-an-angle-1883
Berners, Juliana, Dame. A Treatise on Fishing with a Hook. Translated by William Van Wyck. New York: The Van Rees Press, 1933.
Cennini, Cennino D’Andrea. The Craftsman’s Handbook. Translated by Daniel V. Thompson, Jr. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1960.
Hoffmann, Richard C. “Trout and Fly, Work and Play, in Medieval Europe.” In Bookcasts: A Global History of Fly Fishing and Conservation. Edited by Samuel Snyder et al. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2016.
