the instructions contained in it are handed down from generation to
generation with little change except in diction. Especially is this
the case with the list of trout-flies, a meagre twelve, which survives
in many fishing books until well into the 18th century.

[v.02 p.0023]

From the beginning of the 16th century the fisherman's library begins
to grow apace, as, though books solely devoted to fishing are not yet
frequent, works on husbandry and country pursuits almost all contain
something on the subject. In Italy the fisherman and his occupation
apparently were considered poetically; the word _pescatore_ or its
cognates are common on Italian 16th and 17th century title-pages,
though in many instances the fulfilment of the implied promise is
not adequate, from an angler's point of view. From the pages of
_Bibliotheca Piscatoria_ a fairly long list of Italian writers could
be gleaned. Among them may be mentioned Sannazaro (_Piscatoria_, &c.,
Rome, 1526) and Andrea Calmo (_Rime pescatorie_, Venice, 1557). A
century later was Parthenius, who published a volume of _Halieutica_
at Naples. This writer has an amusing reference to the art of
"tickling" trout as practised in Britain. In Germany, as has been
shown, the original little Flemish treatise had a wide vogue in
the 16th century, and fishing played a part in a good many books on
husbandry such as that of Conrad Heresbach (1570). Fish and fish-ponds
formed the main topic of a Latin work by Dubravius (1552), while
Gesner in the middle of the 16th and Aldrovandi at the beginning of
the 17th centuries wrote at length on the natural history of fishes.
In France the subject is less well represented, but _Les Pescheries_
of Chris. de Gamon (Lyons, 1599) and _Le Plaisir des champs_ of Cl.
Gauchet (Paris, 1604) deserve to be noted. _Les Ruses innocentes_ by
Francois Fortin, first published at Paris in 1600, and several times
in later editions, is characterized by Messrs Westwood and Satchell as
"on the whole the most interesting contribution made by France to
the literature of angling." England during the most part of the 16th
century was evidently well enough served by the original treatise
out of _The Book of St. Albans_. It was republished twice by Wynkyn
de Worde, six or seven times by Copland, and some five times by other
printers. It was also practically republished in _A Booke of Fishing_
by L.M. (1590). L.M. (Leonard Mascall) ranks as an angling author, but
he did l