T of fly fish-ing has just been further deepened.Manuscripts, printed books, and

paintings brought to light over the mostrecent thirty years have exploded themyth of the technique’s peculiar Englishorigins in the anonymous Treatyse ofFysshynge wyth an Angle printed byWynkyn de Worde in the second Boke ofSaint Albans of , and established thepractice of fishing with feathered imita-tions of insects in late medieval Ger -many, England, Italy, and Spain. To thedozen fly patterns of the Treatyse havebeen added the several score traditionalties of vederangln in the Tegernsee codexof circa and more from alpine lands

in following generations; explicit doc-trines of imitation were independentlyarticulated in the mid-fifteenth-centuryEnglish Medicina piscium of OxfordBodleian Library . Rawl. C. , byFernando Basurto in , and in ConradGessner’s Latin translation from anolder vernacular text, which is lost. Andnow there is a newly surfaced tract onfishing written into an Austrian devo-tional book in about (Figure ).What we will here call the HaslingerBreviary fishing tract presents no lessthan twenty hitherto unknown instruc-tions as to “how one should bind hooks”(fol. r). These combinations of specif-ic feathers and silks predate the patterns

of both Tegernsee and the Treatyse by atleast thirty years. Creative twenty-first-century tiers will likely soon constructsoft-hackle flies after these models morethan five centuries old. The tract and itsassociation with identifiable individualsand north-flowing tributaries of theDanube in Upper and Lower Austriaexpand understanding of the place of flyfishing and its tactics in alpine regions ofEurope at the end of the Middle Ages.As of January , the breviary is

owned by the antiquarian booksellersMaggs Bros. Ltd. of London, and the fol-lowing discussion, transcript, and transla-tion into English is published with thepermission of the owner.

The Haslinger Breviary Fishing TractPart I: An Austrian Manuscript Holds the Oldest

Collection of Fly-Tying Patterns Now Knownby Richard C. Hoffmann and Peter Kidd

Figure . The Haslinger Breviary codex. Photo courtesy of Maggs Bros. Ltd., London.

As here presented, this article hasthree major parts:

() The codex (This provides a technicaland physical description of the man-uscript volume, which is a particularkind of late medieval liturgical bookwith subsequently added contents.Various features indicate that the vol-ume dates to –/ andoriginated in southern German-speaking lands of central Austria. Itsoriginal owner and potential scribewas a cleric from the region namedLeonhard Haslinger. In moderntimes, the volume can be trackedfrom Vienna in the s to NorthAmerica and recently from there toLondon.)

() Transcriptions of the fishing texts,both the extended fishing tract (fols.r–v) and some partially illegi-ble marginal comments about fish-ing on both sides of the front flyleaf;in parallel is an annotated transla-tion of the fishing tract into English

()Discussion of the fly patterns andother information in the HaslingerBreviary fishing tract as evidence ofthe place held by fly fishing in latemedieval Austria

For ease of reference and clarity, it willsometimes be necessary to mention orname in passing people or institutionswhose relevant identity will not be con-firmed until some point further into thearticle.

THE HASLINGER CODEX

The medieval manuscript volume(codex) in which a hitherto unknowntract on fishing has recently been noticedis a type of devotional book called a bre-viary. In simple terms, the main liturgi-cal practice of a medieval monk orsomeone training for the priesthood,apart from attending Mass (which couldonly be performed by an ordainedpriest), was performing a series of dailydevotions at certain roughly three-hourintervals from the middle of the nightuntil about sunset. The texts for thesedevotions, the so-called Divine Office,were written down in a breviary.Features of this book help to identify itsorigins.Each breviary contains so-called ordi-

nary texts, which would be used onmany different days, and so-called prop-er texts, which were used only on specif-ic feast days. Feast days in the churchyear are of two main types: there aremovable feasts, such as Easter (whichdepends on a solunar cycle and can fallon any date from March to April ),

and there are feasts that fall on the samedate every year, such as the feast day ofSt. Valentine (always February ) andChristmas (December ). These twotypes of feast are usually arranged in sep-arate series in liturgical manuscripts: thefeasts without fixed dates—starting withAdvent, continuing through Lent toEastertide and the Sundays that followEaster—form the so-called Temporale;the fixed-date feasts, primarily saints’days, form the Sanctorale.Unlike some other kinds of medieval

liturgical manuscripts—such as a missal(which, placed on the altar, the priesthad to be able to read from a short dis-tance) or a choir book (from which,placed on a lectern, several monks mightsing the chant at once)—breviaries weretypically made to be handheld and were

thus often roughly the dimensions of athick modern hardback novel. The leaves of the Haslinger Breviary measureabout by millimeters (½ by ¾inches; Figure ).Because the texts for the entire year

would result in an awkwardly thick andheavy book, it was common for breviariesto be divided into two roughly equalparts: one for use from Advent untilEaster (the winter part) and the other forthe rest of the year (the summer part).The surviving Haslinger Breviary as orig-inally written consists of the summer por-tion of the year—its Sanctorale runs fromthe feast of St. Petronella (May ) to theeve of the feast of St. Andrew (November). It is about millimeters (½ inches)thick, including the leather-covered woodboards of the binding.

Figure . The Haslinger Breviary codex: spine and front cover.Photo courtesy of Maggs Bros. Ltd., London.

The Temporale can rarely help locatethe origin of a codex because the mov-able feasts are celebrated throughoutChristendom. The Sanctorale, however,often holds clues: some saints were ven-erated across the whole of Europe,whereas others were regional or evenvery narrowly local. A town would ven-erate highly a saint whose relics lay in thelocal church; a city a hundred miles awaymight pay no attention to that particular

saint. Thus, the particular contingentincluded in a liturgical manuscript canoffer a good indication of where it wasmeant to be used. The saints appearing inthe Sanctorale of the Haslinger Breviaryshow that it was meant for use withinsouth-central Europe, a zone encompass-ing Poland, Austria, Switzerland, and theadjacent part of southern Germany, and,more particularly, the medieval diocesesof Salzburg and Passau, more or less the

area of present-day southeastern Ger -many (eastern Bavaria) and north-cen-tral Austria (provinces of Salzburg andUpper and Lower Austria).

In addition to the fact of the inclusionof any feast, its relative importance isindicated by its grading. In the monasticDivine Office, a feast can have a maxi-mum of twelve readings (lectiones, orlessons); feasts in the Haslinger Breviaryhave no more than nine lessons, indicat-ing that it is secular—that is, not for usein a monastery but in a parish church ora collegiate or other chapel.Although it has not yet been possible

to identify precisely where the HaslingerBreviary was made, we can be confidentthat it was written with a particular placein mind (or, at least, that the textualexemplar from which it was copied waswritten for a specific place). In theSanctorale, placed between the feasts ofSt. Martin (July ) and St. Willibald (July), there is the feast of the dedication ofa church. Such dedication feasts caneither refer to the dedication date of aspecific local church, such as a parishchurch, or of the main church (typicallythe cathedral) of a diocese. Thus, forexample, liturgical manuscripts writtenfor use in the diocese of Cologne mightinclude the feast of the dedication ofCologne cathedral. None of the placesknown to have been associated with thebreviary’s owner (discussed below), norPassau or Salzburg cathedrals, celebratedtheir dedication on July , , or .Several criteria serve to provide an

approximate date for the HaslingerBreviary. The style of handwriting istypical of the fifteenth century, probablyof the middle decades of the century, butit is difficult to be more precise. Internaltextual evidence (described below),however, strongly suggests that the orig-inal book itself was written before ,and probably before .On some pages originally left blank

when the main text of the breviary wascopied out and bound has been added atable of calendrical data covering theyears –. The table is in sevencolumns, each with a caption at the bot-tom. What is significant for our purpos-es is that the first column is labeled asthe Anni incarnationis domini (the yearof the incarnation of the Lord), which isthe same as Anno domini (the year ..).The first five rows of the table (i.e., forthe years –, inclusive) do nothave this column filled in, but from thesixth row onward the date is entered:, , , and so on (Figure ).This strongly suggests that when thetable was entered into the manuscript,the years before were in the past,and therefore the data relating to these

Figure . The Haslinger Breviary, fol. r: first page of calendrical table. Note the blanksin the first column of the top five rows. Photo courtesy of Maggs Bros. Ltd., London.

years were omitted because they wereobsolete; in other words, the table wasbeing copied no earlier than . This isstrongly corroborated by the date written at the top of the page. We cansafely say that because the writing of thetable can be dated to or , andbecause the table is an addition to theexisting manuscript, that the codex as awhole must have been written before/.Texts about catching fish were added

to the book of religious devotions in twoplaces. A few recipes for fish baits arewritten into the margins of a flyleaf at thebeginning, but the great majority of thenew text occupies pages that had origi-nally been left blank at the end. Thesefour pages about fishing fall between twoother added texts (see herein pages –and Figures –). Imme diately preced-ing the fishing material is a copy of a doc-ument that is surely datable to between and and most likely earlier than. Immediately after the fishing mate-rial is a copy of a document that is dated June (both are discussed below).Of course, a document written in, say, can be copied at any subsequentdate, but these documents and the fishingtext appear to be contemporary with oneanother: there are some obvious changes

in the darkness of the ink and someslight changes in the handwriting, butnothing to suggest that they were writtenat significantly different dates. The likeli-hood, therefore, is that the original bre-viary was written and bound before and that the fishing material and its adja-cent documents were added to the vol-ume between and . The addi-tions to the manuscript were presumablyall made while in one individual’s posses-sion; thus, it seems likely that they werewritten by him.The relevant contents of the volume

may thus be summarized as follows:

Temporale, from Pentecost until a•maximum of twenty-seven weekslater (fols. r–r)Addition:

—The calendrical table datableto ca. (fols. r–v)

Sanctorale, from May to•November (fols. r–v)Additions:

—A document datable to –/ (fol. v)

—The fishing material (fols. r–v)

—A document dated (fol. r)

THE OWNER OF THE CODEX

The mid-fifteenth-century possessor ofthe codex can most likely be identified asLeonhard Haslinger, a thinly documentedchurchman from a family then based inGmunden (Figure ), the small townwhere the Traun River (see Figures , , ,, and ) leaves the Traunsee to flowsome hundred river kilometers northeastto join the Danube just below Linz. As willemerge below, nearly all the places con-nected with the Haslingers are located ineastern Upper Austria or as much farthereast in Lower Austria as Vienna. OnlyLeonhard had good reason to copy onto ablank page (fol. r) in the breviary a pre-cisely dated and localized documentissued at the monastery of Admont on June . The then–Abbot Andreas [vonStettheim (abbot –)], Prior Lud -wig (–), Cellarer Wolfgang,Warden Sigismund, “and the entire con-vent of the Benedictine monastery in thediocese of Salzburg” (fol. r) there for-mally confirm the status of LeonhardHaslinger, “clericus” of Passau diocese, asa “commensalis” in Admont. By the fif-teenth century, the term clericus identifieda churchman below the rank of deacon—neither monk nor priest, but no ordinarylayman either. Such an individual could

Figure . A postcard image from the turn of the twentiethcentury shows the baroque monastery of Lambach, which

replaced the medieval structure on its site overlooking the riverTraun, at low-water conditions. Albert Pesendorfer photo.

Figure . Gmunden, seen from the Calvarienberg,Upper Austria, ca. –. From the Library ofCongress Prints and Photographs Division, Views ofthe Austro-Hungarian Empire in the Photochrom

print collection, LC-DIG-ppmsc-.

not, however, be ordained a priest with-out the bishop providing him with anendowed appointment (a benefice orprebend). Indeed, the document explicit-ly states that Leonhard is “desirous ofproceeding to holy orders and does nothave anything which might impede hisprogress to the priestly order” (fol. r).Hence, the community of Admont pro-vides Leonhard with charitable livingsupport there “until such time as heobtains some benefice in the churcheither through us or through some otherperson” (fol. r). Leonhard was notthen nor in any later record a monk.Leonhard also features in a second

document copied on an originally blankpage of the breviary (fol. v; Figure ).He, now described as priest (presbiter) ofPassau diocese; his brother, JohannesHaslinger; and their parents, Johannesand Margaretha, together petition PopePius II to allow them to choose their ownconfessor and some other religious priv-ileges. Such a petition is called inGerman a Beichtbrief, literally a “confes-sion letter.” The only direct clue to thedate of this document is the pontificateof Pius II: humanist and diplomatAeneas Silvius Piccolomini was electedpope on August and died on August .But the career of Leonhard’s better-

documented brother Johannes helpsnarrow down the dating and fills outLeonhard’s background. Without goinginto irrelevant detail, the Beichtbriefidentifies Johannes as “a clericus ofGmunden” and a papal “familiaris” and“commensalis”—in other words, a mem-ber of the papal court (fol. v).Piccolomini had frequented Austriasince the mid-s, served EmperorFrederick III (–) as an advisorand diplomat, and, having been electedpope, remained actively engaged inAustrian and general central Europeanaffairs at least into . Austrians in hisentourage should arouse no surprise.Elsewhere in the surviving historicalrecord, Pope Pius II granted JohannesHaslinger “of Gmunden” in a papal“familiaris,” expectancy (the next futurevacancy) for two benefices—one underthe patronage of Kremsmünster and theother of St. Florian—as of “as if hewere then already a papal familiaris.”

This puts the Beichtbrief after andfurther confirms the hometown of theHaslingers as Gmunden. In the ensuingthree years, Johannes did obtain theparish of Pfarrkirchen under patronageof Kremsmünster, traded his claim on St.Florian for one elsewhere, and receivedsome religious benefits (indulgences) forvisitors to Pfarrkirchen. In andagain in May , he was allowed to

delay his entry into the priesthood ongrounds of his papal service, eventhough the latter papal charter privilegedhim to retain all the rights of a papalcourtier even if not at the curia and allthe incomes from Pfarrkirchen even ifnot in residence there. It may be rea-sonable to think that the Beichtbrief thusdates between and , whichwould approximate the years by whichhis brother Leonhard had been ordaineda priest. We still lack any indication,however, of where Leonhard received orheld a benefice. The last records now known of

Leonhard Haslinger also place him in thecircle of his brother. These two docu-

ments are not in the breviary, but ratherpreserved in Vienna’s city archive(Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv), asthey in volved a position in the patronageof the city council. First, on October, Johannes, holder of the parish ofPfarrkirchen and the benefice of a per-petual mass in St. Mary Magdalen con-vent outside Vienna, appeared before anotary in Thalheim (a market town onthe Traun about kilometers northwestof Pfarrkirchen) to appoint the abbot ofthe Schotten monastery in Vienna as hisattorney to resign on his behalf the posi-tion in St. Mary Magdalen to thepatrons, the city council of Vienna. Thecouncil in turn was to bestow it on

Figure . The Haslinger Breviary, fol. v: a copy of the Haslinger family’s undatedBeichtbrief to Pope Pius II. Photo courtesy of Maggs Bros. Ltd., London.

Johannes’s brother Leonhard, priest inthe diocese of Passau, and nobody else.

Then, a few weeks later (November ),Leonhard appeared before the city councilin Vienna to swear to do his duties andthus be installed in the post at St. MaryMagdalen as resigned by his brotherJohannes, also a priest. But whenJohannes himself died in summer ,still in possession of Pfarrkirchen and theowner of a house in Kremsmünster, onlysome kinsfolk living in Steyr handled hisbequests. In sum, Leonhard Haslinger, from a

family in Gmunden, obtained enoughschooling in the years before to enterminor ecclesiastical orders in the dioceseof Passau and to have use for an appropri-ate breviary. Thanks in part to some yearsof support from the monastery ofAdmont, he was by / in positionto accept a benefice somewhere in thatdiocese and be ordained a priest. Un -known, however, is where precisely Leon -hard served before , when his moreprominent brother passed on the subur-ban Viennese appointment. Even thatmemorial mass was not likely a lucrativepost. Although Leonhard was literate andable to sustain a modest living during thes and s, he belonged to the host ofclerics who inhabited the fringes of thelate medieval ecclesiastical establishment.During those years he might have thoughtfishing a useful pastime, but not in all like-lihood a very lucrative one. However, hemight have used his literate skills to helpsome lordship in need of a manager orclerk to administer its fishing and othereconomic rights. The main handwriting of the breviary

is in what might be described as a stan-dard cursive book hand: it is neitherespecially untidy nor especially neat. It isakin to the handwriting of formal busi-ness documents: neater than personalmemoranda, but not as carefully writtenas one would expect to find in an illumi-nated manuscript, for example. It is pre-cisely the sort of handwriting, in otherwords, of which Leonhard Haslingershould have been capable. Although thereis no way to be sure, it is possible thatLeonhard wrote out the breviary for hisown use. Alternatively, by the mid-fif-teenth century it would have been possi-ble in any town of any size to commis-sion a specialist scribe to copy such abook, and Leonhard would almost cer-tainly have had to go to a professional toget the volume bound.In all likelihood, Leonhard himself

subsequently copied onto blank spacesof his breviary all the additional texts,most surely including the two legal doc-uments and the fishing tract plus addi-tional glosses. As earlier remarked,

whether writing in Latin or German, thehand, pen, and ink point to the samescribe, although surely not writing at thesame time. Several scholars familiar withlate medieval middle European paleog-raphy have seen no marks of a distinc-tively different hand. It is most temptingto think Leonhard wrote these thingsdown between or after –, whenthose documents most likely mattered tohim, but the last dated element is the cal-endrical material filled in from . Pending any further evidence, the

best (only?) working hypothesis is thatLeonhard Haslinger—son of Gmunden,priest of the Passau diocese, later chap-lain in Vienna—possessed the breviaryand at times during the late s and/orearly s copied into it documents ofinterest to himself, including a tract andisolated recipes on how to catch fish.This is a more close personal connectionthan is now known for any other surviv-ing early fly-fishing or general fish-catching tract. But where the bookwent next is entirely unknown.

THE MODERN PROVENANCE

After the mid-fifteenth century, thenext fixed point in the book’s history issupplied by the circular blue ink stampof . . , on the final fly-leaf, below which is added the date Juni in pencil. This is presumably thestamp and annotation of Joseph MariaWagner (–), Viennese linguistand librarian. If June was when heacquired the codex, he owned it for lessthan a year, because he died on May. He might even have acquired themanuscript specifically for its fishingtreatise because of his interest in fif-teenth-century German dialects. Wagner’sli brary is recorded as having been sold on October , but we have been unableto locate a copy of the catalogue to seewhether the breviary can be identifiedtherein.The book doubtless next had an

Austrian or German owner, very possiblya book dealer, but at some point in thefollowing century, it found its way to theUnited States. It does not feature in thegreat Census of medieval manuscripts inthe United States and Canada compiledby de Ricci, nor in its Supplement, butfirst appears in modern records when itwas sold in New York by Parke-Bernet (January , lot ). We do not knowwho consigned it for sale or who boughtit. Its importance unrecognized, it soldfor $. It was acquired in the UnitedStates in by Maggs Bros. Ltd.,London, who are still the owners at thetime of this writing.

�

. This is not to ignore the passing men-tion by second-century Roman author Ælian(Claudius Ælianus, On the Characteristics ofAnimals, tr. A. E. Schofield, vols. [Cambridge,Mass.: Loeb Classical Library, –],XV:) of fishers in a Macedonian river usinga hook wrapped with red wool and a wax-colored feather to take speckled fish as theyfed on a particular flying insect. No links areknown to connect that isolated tale withEuropean or any other practice a millenniumand more later.

. Willi L. Braekman, The Treatise onAngling in the Boke of St. Albans ():Background, Context and Text of “The treatyseof fysshynge wyth an Angle,” Scripta:Mediaeval and Renaissance Texts andStudies, no. (Brussels: Scripta, publishedunder the auspices of the UniversitaireFaculteiten St.-Aloysius [UFSAL], ),notably pages – and – (althoughBraekman mistakenly divides in two theessential text Medicina piscium, whichdespite a probably missing leaf occupies all ofOxford Bodleian Library . Rawl. C. ,fols. r–v); Richard C. Hoffmann “ANew Treatise on the Treatyse,” The AmericanFly Fisher (vol. , no. , Summer ), –;Richard C. Hoffmann and T. V. Cohen,trans., “El Tratadico de la Pesca: The LittleTreatise on Fishing” [by Fernando Basurtofrom his Dialogo (Zaragoza: George Coci,)], The American Fly Fisher (vol. , no. ,Summer ), –; Richard C. Hoffmann,“The Evidence for Early Euro pean Angling, I:Basurto’s Dialogo of ,” The American FlyFisher (vol. , no. , Fall ), –; RichardC. Hoffmann, “The Evidence for EarlyEuropean Angling, III: Conrad Gessner’sArtificial Flies, ,” The American Fly Fisher(vol. , no. , Spring ), –, with anaddendum (vol. , no. , Summer ), ;Richard C. Hoffmann, Fishers’ Craft andLettered Art: Tracts on Fishing from the End ofthe Middle Ages (Toronto: University ofToronto Press, ), notably –, –,–, –, –, –, and –;Alvaro Masseini, “Fly Fishing in EarlyRenaissance Italy? A Few Revealing Docu -ments,” The American Fly Fisher (vol. , no., Fall ), –; Andrew Herd, The Fly(Ellesmere: Medlar Press, ), – and

Transcript, translation, and historicalanalysis copyright © Richard C.Hoffmann . Special thanks are duethroughout to the irreplaceable assis-tance of Dr. Herwig Weigl, Institut fürÖsterreichische Geschichtsfor schung,Vienna; Dr. Gertrud Haidvogl, Instituteof Hydrobiology and Aquatic EcosystemManagement, University of NaturalResources and Life Sciences (BOKU),Vienna; Dr. Christoph Sonnlechner,Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv, Vienna;and Helmut Irle, Hatzfeld am Eder,Germany.

–; Andrew Herd, The History of FlyFishing, Volume I: The History (Ellesmere:Medlar Press, ), –, –, and –,and Volume II: Trout Fly Patterns, –(Ellesmere: Medlar Press, ), –.

. For further information, see MaggsBros. Ltd. of London (www.maggs.com) or con-tact Jonathan Reilly at Jonathan@Maggs.com.

. Mass could only be performed by anordained priest; monks, unordained clergy,and laypeople would attend Mass, but couldnot perform it.

. Indicative feasts include Achatius andhis , companions (June ), venerated atPassau; Kylian (July ), “the Apostle ofFranconia”; Heinrich (July ), i.e., Henry II,King and Holy Roman Emperor, principalpatron of Bamberg; Oswald (August ), espe-cially popular in southern Germany, andpatron of Zug, Switzerland; Hermes (August), some of whose relics were at Salzburg; thetranslation (i.e., the moving of the relics to anew shrine) of Cunigundis (September ), wifeof Henry II; Emmeram (September ), patronof Regensburg; the translation of Rupert(September ), founder and first bishop ofSalzburg; Wenceslas (September ), principalpatron of Bohemia and Moravia; Maximilian(October ), principal patron of Linz andPassau; Coloman (October ), a minor patronof Austria; Hedwig (October ), principalpatroness of Silesia; Gall (October ), princi-pal patron of St. Gallen; Othmar (November), first abbot of St. Gallen; and Virgilius(November ), bishop of Salzburg and princi-pal copatron (with Rupert) of Salzburg.

. This is quite normal in medieval man-uscripts: the color of different batches of inkcan vary considerably. One can also oftenobserve the ink starting very dark at thebeginning of a passage, becoming graduallylighter over the course of a few lines, and then

becoming suddenly dark again when thescribe re-dips his quill in the inkpot.

. Comparisons are made more difficultby the fact that text on a page looks differentdepending on its language, as different lan-guages use the letters of the alphabet in dif-ferent proportions; a passage of German willlook different from a passage of Latin, forexample, even if written by the same scribe atthe same date. A scribe might also deliberate-ly alter his writing depending on the contentof the text; some materials warranted a moreformal style of script than others.

. The number of weeks from Pentecostto Advent is variable, depending on the reli-gious calendar and dates of both these mov-able feasts.

. Jakob Wichner, Geschichte des Benedik -tiner-Stiftes Admont, Band , Von der Zeit desAbtes Engelbert bis zum Tode des Abtes Andreas v.Stettheim (–) (Graz: Selbstverlag desVerfassers; Vereins-Buchdruckerei, ), .

. The medieval diocese of Passau, asubdivision of the archdiocese of Salzburg,extended throughout this period across all ofUpper and Lower Austria. At the time, how-ever, it was not unusual for long-establishedmonasteries such as Admont to be exemptfrom the authority of the diocesan bishop. In, Emperor Frederick arranged for the cityof Vienna and a handful of nearby villages tobecome a tiny new bishopric of Vienna.

. Commensalis is literally a “table com-panion.”

. Repertorium Germanicum : Pius II.Nr. Johannes Haslinger.

. The family must have been wellenough off to have two sons schooled but wasnot important enough to appear in lists ofofficeholders in Gmunden. Persons of thatname are documented there in the early six-teenth century (Ferdinand Krackowizer,

Geschichte der Stadt Gmunden in Ober-Öster-reich, vol. [Gmunden: Mänhardt, ], ).Summaries of original charters fromGmunden’s municipal archive are now in theOberösterreichisches Landesarchiv (www.landesarchiv-ooe.at/xbcr/SID-DBAF-DCCDAC/Gmunden.pdf) but give noHaslingers.

. Repertorium Germanicum : Pius II.Nr. Johannes Haslinger.

. Johannes had received this benefice in. Medieval lore associated Mary Magdalenwith repentance from sexual sin, and religioushouses dedicated to her commonly aimed tohelp former prostitutes. Vienna’s Magdalenaconvent had been founded in the s justoutside the city’s Schottentor (gate) at thenorthwest corner of the walls. Its affairs weresubjected to a joint municipal and ecclesiasti-cal review and correction in , and in it was placed under supervision of Augus -tinian canonesses (women), then later thecanons (men) of St. Dorothea. A Vienna citi-zen had endowed the chaplaincy held by theHaslinger brothers under patronage of thecity council. The Magdalena convent wasdestroyed during the Ottoman siege of Viennain . See www.wien.gv.at/wki/index.php/Maria-Magdalena-Kloster (accessed June ).

. This document is available online athttp://monasterium.net/mom/AT-WStLA/HAUrk//charter (accessed January ).

. Ibid.. All other central European texts with

artificial flies are anonymous. Identificationof William Samuel as the author on the miss-ing flyleaf of The Arte of Angling, (whichdoes not include fly fishing) depends on(quite convincing) inference from internalreferences (Gerald E. Bentley, ed. The Arte ofAngling, [Princeton: Princeton Univer -sity Press, ]; Thomas P. Harrison, “TheAuthor of ‘The Arte of Angling, ,’” Notesand Queries (n.s. , October ), –).Fernando Basurto, however, clearly self-iden-tifies as author of the Dialogo (Zaragoza:George Coci, ) and is well known fromother contemporary sources (see Hoffmann,Fishers’ Craft and Lettered Art, –).

. For more on Wagner, see Karl Glossy,“Wagner, Joseph Maria” in AllgemeineDeutsche Biographie (), –; online atwww.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz.htmland www.deutsche-biographie.de/ppn.html?anchor=adb (accessed January ).

. There are some pencil numbers onthe inside of the front board and on the finalflyleaf that look like booksellers’ inventoryand catalogue numbers, written in continen-tal European hands.

. Seymour de Ricci and W. J. Wilson,Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manu -scripts in the United States and Canada, vols.(New York: H. W. Wilson, and ).

. C. U. Faye and W. H. Bond, Sup -plement to the Census of Medieval and Ren -aissance Manuscripts in the United States andCanada (New York: The BibliographicalSociety of America, ).Figure . An early-nineteenth-century representation of the Traun Falls below

Gmunden, still as the Haslingers may have known it. Twentieth-centuryhydroelectric constructions subsequently transformed the river, although it

remains a destination for fly fishers. Albert Pesendorfer photo.

THE HASLINGER BREVIARY FISHING TRACT:TRANSCRIPTION

. (see Figure )

Item nota wie man ángel vassen schol auf dasgancz iar und nach yegleichen monátt

Item In dem ersten may so nym vinsters gefider und swarcz liechtprawn daruntter das es gueten schein darunder gebItem und was du swarcz gefider magst gehaben dasscholtu auf legen und gold und swarcz seyden darunderund ain rotten angel mit rotten gefider und gold und rottdarunder Also hastu den ersten may gar genueg es seydas wasser sal oder geswollen so mach dy ángel oder dass ge[-]fider dester grosser

Item auf den anderen may so nym liechtprawn gefider und swarcz und rott darunder und nym weis gefider undgold und swarcz darunder und nym rotprawn gefiderund weis und rott darunder und fuer ain swarczen angel mit dem gefást und ain rotten angel auch albegan der snuer als ich vor geschriben hab und machdas gefást wol tan und gross und richt dich nachdem wasser als ich vorgeschriben hab.

Item zu dem ersten augst scholtu vassen ain rotten wipfelrotter federen mit rott und mit prawn und ain guldeinprústel darunder darnach scholtu vassen tunkchel grabsgefider und vass silber und rott seyden darunder und nym weiss rephuner federen und vass weiss und rottseyden darunder nym stingel rots gefider und vass rottund gelib darunder und fuer albeg ain swarczenangel und ain rotten an der snuer und richt dich albegnach dem wasser

Item zu dem anderen augst so nymb aschen faribs gefiderund vass darunder grab und liechtplabs und nymbgelibs gefider und vass rott und gelib darunttermit ainem geliben guldein prústlein und nymnaterwint gefider und vass grab und weis darunderund nymb der weissen pámhákchldy er hat underdem chroph und misch sy under ander gefider dasliechtgrab sey und vass rott und weis darunder undvass dy zwen ángel als vor und richt dichnach dem wasser

Item zu dem ersten heribst so nymbmawsfalibs gefidermit weis und mit rott und ain guldein prústldarunder und nymb ain grabe federen von ainem raiger und nymb gold und grab darunder undnym tunkchel glasvarib und vass rott und weisdarunder und ain geliben angel als ich vor ge[-]schriben hab und fleiss dich so das wasser ye klainersey so du ye chlainer scholt vassen und swarcz und rott als vor

[Underline indicates difficult, dubious, or conjectural reading; strikethroughs areas in manuscript. The acute accent mark ´ indicates the presence of a diacriticalmark, which is not to be read as equivalent to the modern German umlaut.]

THE HASLINGER BREVIARY FISHING TRACT:TRANSLATION

.

Item note how one should bind hook[s] for thewhole year and according to each month

Item in the first May thus take a dark feather and blacklight brown under that so it gives a good shine underneath.Item and what you may have of black feather, thatyou should lay on top and golden and black silk under thatand a red hook with red feather and gold and red [silk]under it. Therefore you have quite enough for first May.Should the water be turbid or swollen, then make your hookor the feather so much larger.

Item in June [“second May”] take a light brown feather andblack and red [silk] under that and take a white feather andgold and black [silk] under that and take a reddish brown featherand white and red [silk] under that and for a blackhook tied with it and a red hook also always on the line as I have written before and make that well tied and large and adjust yourself according to the water [conditions] as I have written before.

Item in the first August you should bind a red tuft ofred feathers with red and with brown [silk] and a golden breast under that. After that you should bind dark grayfeather and bind silver and red silk under that andtake white partridge feather and bind white and a redsilk under that. Take a red stingel feather and bindred and yellow [silk] under that and for always a blackhook and a red [one] on the line and adjust yourself alwaysaccording to the water [conditions].

Item in September [“second August”] thus take ash-colored featherand bind under that gray and light blue [silk] and takeyellow feather and bind red and yellow [silk] under thatwith a golden breast and takewryneck feather and bind gray and white [silk] under that and take the white [feathers] of the woodpecker

which he has beneaththe crop and mix them among another feather that islight gray and bind red and white [silk] under that and bind the two hooks as before and adjust yourselfaccording to the water.

Item in October [“first autumn”] thus take palemousey brown featherwith white and with red [silk] and a golden breastunder that and take a gray feather from a heron and take gold and gray [silk] under that andtake dark glass-colored [feather] and bind red and whiteunder that and a yellow hook as I have previouslywritten and work hard so that the smaller the wateris, so the smaller you should tie and blackand red [hooks on the line] as before.

The Haslinger Breviary Fishing TractPart II: Transcription and English Translation

by Richard C. Hoffmann

.

Item in November [“other autumn”] you should bind really small and shouldlay down a light gray feather and light blue and white [silk]under that and take green woodpecker feathers and wind green and yellow [silk] under that and take light ash-colored feather and wind gold and white [silk] under that. What you take thusof pale feathers,that is all good, and take red and white [silk] as before.So you have the entire art/craft [chunst] of the tyingand what you would make as a breast for every month and onall hooks, which you should do in the color as thisis tied.

Item [if] you wish to catch fish in May with bait:chub, grayling, trout So boil an egg really hard and chopit really small and give it to the nightcrawlers to eatin a little box and let them lie there for a day and takethem out then and lay them in a clean mossand let them stretch themselves through that so they willgleam like gold.

Item [if] a good trout or grayling escapes from the hook [and] you wish to catch it again, put watercrickets or regular crickets on the hook or take “stonebait” or ant eggs [i.e., pupae] or take white fat andcut it as small as the ant eggs and bind a grape [?] with another gray feather and bait iton there and weight it well to the bottom. So you may catch grayling when the water is turbid whether inwoodland brooks or on broad waters and useno other bait up to St. Martin’s day.

Item [if] you wish to catch winter grayling, then take watercrickets orregular crickets and push two on a “twitched hook”

which is well leaded. But no trout lets itself be caughtin the wintertime with any hook except a night line.

Item if the chub will not take your feather bait inMay, then take a black turd beetle [kotkeffer] and breakits upper wings off or take June beetles and put two on the hook that he takes very eagerlyor take nightcrawlers and put them in honeyand let them lie in it for a while and put themon the hook.

Item in June thus change the bait with cherriesor with sour cherries [Weichseln].

Item in autumn time thus take blue plums or grapes

or take earth crickets or cut a small fishinto little bits and put that on the hook. That he takesvery gladly. Item swallow meat. Weasel meat isalso very good on the hook.

. [continues hook baits as from v]

Item to catch another fish take beetles or a wether’sbowels and lay them in honey. That is good on thehook so long as you may have them.

Item the frogs which fall in the rain are good in themonth September.

Item orholden are good through the entire year for trout, grayling,and barbel on the hook.

. (see Figure )

Item zu dem andern heribst scholtu vassen garchlain und scholtauf legen liecht grabb gefider und liecht plab und weisdarunder und nym gruenspachen federn und wint grúen und gelib darunder und nym liecht aschen varibfeder undwint gold und weis darunder was du sunstliechts gefidersnymbst das ist alles guet und nym rott und weis als vorso hastu dy gantzen chunst auf dem vassenund was du von prústlein wellest machen auf alle monád und auffall angel das scholtu tuen in der varib als das gefastsey

Item wildu visch vahen in dem ersten may mit dem kóderalten / ásch / vorchen So sewd ain ay gar hert und hakches gar chlain und gib es dem regen wúrmlen zu essenin das truchel und lass sew ain tag da ligen und tuesew dan daraus und leg sew in ain lawtteren myess und lass das sew sich da durich zihen so werden sewschein als das gold

Item enprist dir ain guete vórchen oder ain asch ab demangel woldestu in dan wider vahen So nym wassergrillen oder recht grillen an den angl oder nym stainkoder oder amays ayr oder nym weissen spekch undzu sneyd in chlain als dy amays ayr und vassain zepher mit ainer grabem federen und kóder esdaran und pley in wol zu dem grunt also magstuasch geuahen wan das wasser sall ist es sey in wald pecheren oder auf weitten wasser und nymbtanders kóder nicht unczt hin auff sand Merten tag

Item wildu des winters ásch vahen So nym wassergrillen oderrecht grillen der stóss zwen an ainen zukch anglder wol pleyt sey aber chain vórchen lást sich des wintersvahen mit chainem angl dan mit nacht ángel

Item wil dir der alt das feder koder nicht nemen in demersten may so nym ain swarczen kotkeffer und prichim dy oberen flúg ab oder nym prach kefferen derstóss zwen an den angl das nimbt er gar gernoder nymb regen wúrmel und tue sew in hónigund lass sew ain weil dar in ligen und stóss sewan den angel

Item in dem ander may so veránder das kóder mit kerssenoder mit weixeln

Item zu heribst zeitten so nymb plab chrichen oder weinper oder nymb erd grillen oder zu sneid ain chlains vischlzu pislein und stóss das an den angel das nymbt ergar gern Item swalymb fleisch wisel fleisch ist auch gar guet an dy angel

. (see Figure ) [has no heading, title, etc., socontinues from v]

Item ein ander visch vahen nymb cheffern oder chastrawengederm und leg dy in das hónig das ist guet an dyangel dy weil du sew gehaben magst

Item dy frósch dy in dem regen vallent sein guet in demmanet September

Item orholden sein guet durch das gancz iar zu vorchen aschenund permem an den angel

[Ink is now much paler than above. Next recipes are for angling baits, not feathers.]

Item the caterpillars are good while the cabbage growsand they are cabbage worms.

Item the big flies are good while one may havethem.

Item the mayflies are good when the winter lets upand the waters flow heavily.

Item the blue flying little “worms” are good while they are present.

Item a thick piece of oxen meat [offal?] which is there placedin a shoe for a day is good on the hook [?in?]October.

Item take barley meal with goat’s “sweat” and mix with a little honey and make it so thatit will be right for the hook. Or take a liverfrom a goat which has not been well roasted. Those are goodon the hook.

Item take chicken entrails which have been roasted a little in a panand then laid in honey. This is good the whole winter.

Item green peas are good while one may get them.Item small gudgeon are good the whole winter in clear ice.Item [if] you wish to catch fish, then take in May the may beetlewhich is smooth and not the rough [one] and take thenightcrawlers which lie in the manure pile, the white smalland the long [ones] and not the fat ones and take lot

of candy sugar and lot of pure salt and lot of honeyand take the top wheat flour [or meal] and the best flourthat is above all [other] wheat flour and press the pieces throughone another and let them stand for days orthree weeks. Then strain it through a sieve and putit in a little box and keep it so long until that you want to fish. Then rub the hands or feet with itand go in the water. So you will catch as many as you wish.

.

Item Note the bait for the traps [pot gear]Item take tree frogs with the skin removedand place them in the traps.

Item take leeches and put them in some milk until it becomes full and put it in the sun so that it will dry. Afterward rub or press them andput it in a little bag and make holes in thatbag with a stylus and put it then into the trap.

Item do the same with laurel that is also welldried or becomes so and press it.

Item take goat liver and soak it in honeyand mix with water and let it lie in the samehoney and thus it is good for crayfishand for fish in the traps.

Item in the month July or in the month Augustthus take the liver and the lungs and the heartof a goat and press with its blood and lay [this]in the earth of a warm manure [pile] for seven daysand dry this and prepare it for the hookor for the traps.

Item take calves meat and lay it in honey together for awhole month and prepare it for the hook or for thetraps and it then works wondrously.

Item mark a general rule of fish. Item in the monthAugust the fish go to the very top of the waterand in the month of September they go one ell

down under the water and in the month of Octoberthey go under the water an ell and a halfand the whole [rest of] the year they go on the bottom.

Item dy rappen, sein guet dy weil das chrawtt wáchstund sein chrawt wúrmer

Item dy grossen mucken sein guet dy weil man sew gehabenmag

Item dy may fliegen sein guet wan der wintter abnymbtund dy wasser ser fliessen

Item dy plaben fliegunden wúr[m]lein sein guet dy weil sew werdent.

Item ain dikch stukch ain ochsen fleks der da gelegt wirtin einen schuech ein tag der ist guet zu dem angeloctober

Item nymb gersten mel mit ainem púkchen swais undgemischt mit ainem wenigen hónig und mach dases gerecht werd czu dem angel oder nymb ein leberains pokchs dy nicht wol gepratten sey dy ist guetan dem angel

Item nym huner darm dy ain wenig geróst sein in ainer phanund darnach gelegt in ein hónig die sein guet den ganczenwintter

Item grúen arbais sein guet dy weil man sew gehaben magItem chlain grundel sein guet den ganczen wintter in lautter eyssItem wildu visch vachen so nym in dem may dy may kéfferdy glat sein und nicht dy Rauchen und nym dy regenwúrmer dy in den misthawffen ligent dy weissen smallenund dy langen und nicht dy dikchen und nym j lottcandwla czucker und ain lott lawtter salcz und j lott hónig und nym das óbrist semel mel ist und das peste meldas úber all semel mel ist und stóss dy stukch duri[ch]einander und lass sew sten ein xiiij tag oder dreywochen darnach seich es durich ein sib und tue es in ein púxel und pehalt es so lang unczt das du wild vischen So salb dy hentt oder dy fuess da mitund gee in das wasser so váchstu als wil du wild

. (see Figure )

Item Nota das kóder in dy ReischenItem nym pawm frósch den dy hawt ist abgeczogenund leg sew in dy Reischen

Item nym egel und leg sew in ein milich piz das volwerden und legs an dy sunn das also trukchenwerden darnach so reib sew oder stóss undlegs in ein sákchlein und zu lócher das selbig sakel mit ainem stil und legs dan in dy Reischen

Item mit lorber tue des gleichen das sew auch wolgetrukchet sein oder werden und zu stóssen

Item nym púkchen leber und sewd sey in einen hónigund misch mit wasser und lass den in dem selbinghónig ligen und so ist sy den guet zu dem chrewssenund zu den vischen in dy Reischen

Item in dem manad Julio oder in dem manad augustoso dy nym dy leber und dy lungel und das hertzdes pokchs und zu stóss mit seinem pluet und legsin dy erden an ainen warmen mist syben tagund trukchen sew den und peraits zu dem angeloder zu der Reischen

Item nym chelbrein fleisch und legs in hónig sam aingancz manat und peraits zu dem angel oder zu derReischen und es wúricht dan wunderleich

Item merkch ain gmaine Regel der visch Item in dem manadaugusto so gent dy visch zu allerhochist in dem wasserund in dem manat septembri so gent sew ain ellntewff under dem wasser und in dem manat Octobriso gent sew under dem wasser anderthalbe ellenund das gancz iar den gent sew an dem grunt

Item take a swallow and put it in honey andas often as you wish take a piece of the swallowfor the hook. So you will catch fish

Item take a heron’s foot or leg and burn it to powderand that same powder and the heron’s fat andwhen you will go to fish, smear your hand with it.

Item [if] you wish to catch chub, then take a grasshopper and baitit on a “twitched hook,” so you will catch themwithout measure—and break the wings off.

Upper and left margins

The recipe can be seen to use camphor (?), cheese, and valer-ian allowed to rot together in a bladder. Then remove a pieceof the cheese “and place it on the hook in the style of fishersand you will take all the fish in that water.”

Lower marginAnother method

Item take caterpillars [? tapen, perhaps capen] and bait it onthe hook and lay it inhoney and let it die there and then take it out of yourhoney and lay it in the sun so it becomes dry andlay it then where you wish. That is proven.

Item for the graylingItem take bacon which is not rancid [and] bait it on.

So you will catch.

Item nymb ain swalimb und legs in ain hónig undals oft du wild so nym der swalimb ain tailan den angel so vágst du visch

Item nymb Raiger fuess oder pain und prenns zu pulv[er]und das selbig pulver und das Raiger smaltz undso du vischen wild gen so smier dy hendt da mit

Item wildu vahen alten so nym haber schrekh und chódersan ain zukch angl so vákst du ir an mass und prichin dy flúg ab

Upper margin_ _ o_ recipe _ _ _ ____ {vellum broken away}__Ganifore ex ______________________ube -p_ _ _ _ _ post hec recipe caseum extractum de casetore & eum _ extende in latum quantum potisillum tum put_ _ _bus valeria alie fortiter & _________

Left margin[| indicates line breaks in this marginal gloss, which continuestext from upper]

_ _ odum | _illarum _ _ | huius de | frustra | pone ad | vesicam| ubi habes | _astiorum | _ _ Ganifo|ra & per- | mitte | sic |sX{or sil/ for simul }iacere| per diem & | noctem | donec sapor| illorum duorum | penetravit | frustra casei postquam | accipe| vesica | frustra | casei aliis | duabus ma- |ne[n]tibus | in vesi-ca | & pone | frustra | illa ad | hamum | ad modum | piscatori| & recipis | omnes pisces | illius aque

Lower margin alium modum

Item nym tapen vnd choders ander angel und legs in ain

honig und lass darin sterben darnach nyms aus dem honig und legs an ain sunn das sy durr [werd]en undlegs darnach wo du wild das ist pewar[t]

Item czu dey AschenItem nym ain spekch der nicht smierkel den choder an

so vachst du

[blank space of one or two lines, followed by a slightly different hand, pen, or ink]

[blank space of one or two lines, followed by a slightly paler and finer pen or ink]

Glosses about fishing appear in upper, left, and lower margins of the fly leafrecto and in upper and lower of the fly leaf verso (Figures and ). Theupper margin of the leaf is broken and heavily stained on both sides, as isthe left margin of the recto. The top and left margin gloss is in Latin buteffectively fragmentary due to stains and broken edges. In consequence,much is illegible or conjectural. Although these recipes plainly constituteunordered memoranda, not an organized tract, there is no way of tellingwhether they were written down before or after the tract on fols. r–v.

hole

Upper margin

[Top is too illegible for any sense. Possibly involves worms androtten wood.]

Lower marginItem [if] you wish to catch crayfish

So take a roasted liver on to a spit andstick it in the water and as many spits as you have

in the water, so many crayfish will you findon there.

Item [if] you wish to catch carp

So take hen’s intestine and roast it and baitit on a hook so you catch right away.

Upper margin[Five lines but heavily stained and with parts of the top edgeand left edge broken away. The last line had only two or threewords but now only the last is still present (and dubiously leg-ible). Some of the right margin may be hidden under bind-ing.]

Item wild du visch vahen oder _____{broken edge}an dem zu

-gl stt _____ wurig {or wurm?} fawlen holcz vnd t

h _ _ _ und _ _ gewss ain peschayt _

lass du _ _ _ _ _ scrayben ain tag und nacht es

______

Lower marginItem wildu chrewssen vahen

So ah nym ain prattne leber ain an ain spiss vnd stekcs in das wasser vnd als vil du der spissel hastges[telc ht in das wasser als vil vindczt du chrewssendaran

Item wildu chárphen vahenSo nym húner gederm vnd prútt das vnd chodersan ain angel so vachst du czu handt.

holehole

Left mar-gin is bro-ken away

Edge brokenor covered bybinding

Figure . The Haslinger Breviary, front fly leaf recto.Note fragmentary and sometimes illegible glosses ofbait recipes in upper, left, and bottom margins.Photo courtesy of Maggs Bros. Ltd., London.

Figure . The Haslinger Breviary, front fly leaf verso. Note frag-mentary and sometimes illegible glosses of bait recipes in upperand bottom margins. Photo courtesy of Maggs Bros. Ltd., London.

. Wipfel—literally a treetop that swingsin the breeze.

. Rock partridge (Alectoris graeca),native to central Alps.

. See Richard C. Hoffmann, Fishers’Craft and Lettered Art: Tracts on Fishing fromthe End of the Middle Ages (Toronto:University of Toronto Press, ), , note for discussion of this cryptic term.

. Jynx torquilla, German Wendehals—aground-loving bird of the woodpecker fami-ly breeding across most of continentalEurope. Feathers are gray and brown speck-led with creamy throat and dirty white belly.

. Pámhákchl is literally “tree hacker.”The most common species of the region is thegreat spotted woodpecker, Dendrocopos major(in modern German Buntspecht), which has awhite throat and breast.

. Gray heron (Ardea cinerea) is foundthroughout temperate Europe.

. Green woodpecker (Picus viridis,German Grünspecht), native across temperateEurope, has dull olive green upper parts andpale gray-green beneath.

. Leuciscus cephalus, called Döbel in stan-dard German and Alten in alpine dialects, arecarnivorous cold-water cyprinids common tomoving waters across continental Europe.

. Thymallus thymallus prefer clear swiftwaters throughout northern Europe as fareast as the Urals.

. Salmo trutta (“brown” trout) are nativeto northern Europe, including alpine rivers.

. Perhaps cased caddis larvae. SeeHoffmann, Fishers’ Craft and Lettered Art, ,note .

. Reading “zepher” as Middle HighGerman zepfe, which can refer to a grape,head of grain, or flower cluster.

. Martinmas, November .. The zukch angl is discussed at length

in Hoffmann, Fishers’ Craft and Lettered Art,, note .

. Literally a “night hook,” probablymeaning a hook and line left out overnight.

. Brachmonat = June.. Austrian dialect: Krieche = a sub-

species of plum (Prunus domesticus insititia),Wein-Beeren = grapes.

. Swalimb, a sort of swallow, MiddleHigh German swalwe, swalbe, s(ch)walmb. BothHirundo rustica (English “swallow,” GermanRauchschwalbe, North American “barn swal-low”) and Delichon urbica (English “housemartin,” German Mehlschwalbe) are commonin the region. The unfledged young might easi-ly be taken from the nests both species fre-quently build in barns or under the eaves ofother human structures.

. “Permen” for Middle High Germanparben = barbel, Barbus barbus, a torpedo-shaped cyprinid which favors strong currents.

. A similar bait is in the “TegernseeFishing Advice,” Hoffmann, Fishers’ Craft andLettered Art, –.

. Middle High German sweiz can alsomean “blood,”’ which might be more likelyhere.

. Gobio gobio.. A measure of weight, roughly

grams or ½ ounces.. I.e., coarsely crystallized sugar (“rock

candy”).. Namely, that which is for sacramental

bread.. A measure of length, anywhere from

a half-meter to something more than a meter(½ to feet?).

. See note above.

. The wondrously attractive effects ofheron-based salves are promoted in a mid-fifteenth-century tract from the westernBodensee (Gerhard Hoffmeister, “Fischer-und Tauchertexte vom Bodensee,” in GuldolfKeil, ed., Fachliteratur des Mittelalters:Festschrift fur Gerhard Eis [Stuttgart: J. B.Metzler, ]), so roughly contemporary withthe present text, and in several later sources,most notably twice in the “Tract in Chapters” first printed at Heidelberg in and also both copied from that source and inindependent recipes in the Tegernsee advice(Hoffmann, Fishers’ Craft and Lettered Art,–, –, –, and –).

. Cyprinus carpio, native in Europe untilthe Middle Ages only in the lower Danube andother Black Sea drainages, had by the mid-fif-teenth century expanded its range to most ofthe continent north of the Alps and Pyreneesand also to at least southeastern Britain. Carpwere by then well known in pond culture andalso as feral populations. Findings in Richard C.Hoffmann, “Remains and Verbal Evidence ofCarp (Cyprinus carpio) in Medieval Europe,” inWim Van Neer, ed., Fish Exploitation in the Past:Proceedings of the th Meeting of the I.C.A.Z.Fish Remains Working Group, Annales duMusée Royal de l’Afrique Central, SciencesZoologiques, vol. (Tervuren, Belgium:Musée Royal de l’Afrique Central, ), –,are undisputed by knowledgeable archaeozool-ogists and historians.

. Ink changes.. Ink changes.. The scribe fumbled a bit here. He

wants to say “make holes into it,” which wouldbe better in German as zerlöchere es, but hedoes not write zer-, but zu- (and repeats this).Hence, the wiser reading is zu lócher.

Figure . Low water in a gorge of the river Traun.Andi Melcher photo.

W of thelate medieval German Empirerolled down from the Alps to

the Danube (Figure ), a multiplicity oflay and ecclesiastical princes (as well asurban communities of various scale)struggled to assert authority over peasantfarmers and diverse natural resources.Under often rival sibling Wittelsbachdukes in Bavaria and Hapsburgs inAustria (including Tirol and Carnolia[see Figure ]), landholders and com-munities wrestled for local power, auton-omy, and access to woodlands, minerals,and many waters. The region sustainednot only some degree of wealth and avibrant culture, but also a deep historical

record of freshwater fisheries in generaland the feathered hook in particular.Along the late medieval Traun (see

Figures , , , , and ) and other riversand lakes in the central Danube catchment(e.g., Enns, Ybbs, Pielach [see Figure ],and Mondsee), fishing rights in well-delimited areas belonged to old monasticlordships (such as Lambach [see Figure ],Kremsmünster, St. Florian, and lesserfoundations), the episcopal estates ofSalzburg and Passau, and less-well-docu-mented lay landholders. Lords assigned orleased major fisheries to subject or freemaster fishers (called on the Traun fertfis-cher) who were obliged to supply the lord’shousehold (which might be an entire

monastic community) and then allowedto peddle their surplus catch in local vil-lages or nearby market towns. Specificsmall areas were consigned to lesser arti-sanal fishers; in most waterside communi-ties, ordinary householders exercised alimited customary right to fish for theirfamily’s direct consumption (not sale). In this setting, use of the feathered

hook was by the fourteenth century welldocumented as one available capturetechnique. For example, in , Lambachconceded to a married couple namedPernau unlimited and exclusive exploita-tion of a Traun fishery called Steckweide,but also free fishing access alongside theabbey fishers to a local Traun feeder

The Haslinger Breviary Fishing TractPart III: Fly Fishing in Late Medieval Austria

by Richard C. Hoffmann

Figure . The homeland of the Haslingers, between the Alps and the Danube, Passau to Vienna. Gertrud Haidvoglmap. Produced using Copernicus data and information funded by the European Union–EU-DEM layers.

“which we can use with the fóderanglwherever we wish.” The oldest survivingAustrian fisheries ordinance—declaredin by thirty-two master fishers foreleven lords with fisheries on the Traunbetween the falls (just downstream ofGmunden; see Figures and ) and theDanube—tried to confine legal use of ainvedersnuer (“one feathered line”) totenures with full fishing rights and forbidit to the less privileged. Much later (butstill in a wholly premodern setting), a six-teenth-century codex from St. Floriancontains a section titled “Fisch Buoch,” including six pages with fifty-threepatterns “to bind hooks” (die Ánnglvassen) with feathers and silk. In thiscontext, only the combined early dateand special prescriptive content make theHaslinger Breviary tract stand out.

The fish-catching text inscribed onblank pages of the Haslinger Breviary is agood example of what has elsewhere beenclassified as a “tract,” as distinct from iso-lated recipes and unordered memorandaon the one hand and a fully structuredtreatise on the other. The text in the bre-viary has three well-differentiated parts:binding hooks with feathers, hook baits,and baits for traps. Each part contains anumber of recipes or prescriptions andsome plainly instructional passages. The“craft” or “art” (chunst, fol. v) of tyingis to choose patterns for particularmonths and to adjust the size of the hookand feather to the volume and clarity ofthe water. Angling baits are designated forparticular fish varieties, seasons, andwater conditions. Recommendations fortrap baits also have some tactical corre-

lates, although that last section seems lessthoughtful overall—until it observes a“general rule” (fol. v) of fish holdingnear the surface in late summer and everdeeper in the water column as autumngradually sets in. Characteristic seasonalchanges are, of course, easily observed inclear alpine waters.The entire tract uses what might be

called the medical prescription mode ofaddress common among late medievalinstructional manuals, cookery and fishcatching among them. Each entry beginswith Item (Latin “also,” “likewise”) andorders the reader to “take” (Germannym) certain ingredients and carry outcertain tasks. Often a conditional pur-pose is provided, addressing the readerin the second person: “Likewise, [if] youwish to catch fish . . .” (Item wildu visch

Figure . The Haslinger Breviary, fol. r: “How one shouldbind hooks.” Photo courtesy of Maggs Bros. Ltd., London.

Figure . The Haslinger Breviary, fol. v: more fly patterns,followed by hook baits. Photo courtesy of Maggs Bros. Ltd., London.

vahen . . .) (fol. r, and compare similarwording on fols. v and v). The firstpart on how to “bind hooks” (fol. r) isperhaps distinguished by a more oraldiction, with repeated injunctions toadjust the hook size and orientation tothe water, but also twice refers to “as Ihave written before” (fol. r). Thatphrase—and the occasional cross outs ina remarkably error-free manuscript—may hint that the scribe was copyingfrom an older written source. That thetext and the techniques of binding hookswere not here freshly contrived is themore plain in the cursory form of theprescriptions themselves: the scribeexpected the reader to know the formand method of attaching the materials tothe hook. If rightly dated to the s–s, the

tract as a whole does represent a rhetori-cal advance over such earlier fish-catchingsuggestions as more or less randomlyappear in surviving thirteenth- through

early-fifteenth-century Latin and Germanmedical or household collections and inthe British Library Sloane , andeven over the six recipes glossed into mar-gins of the front flyleaf in the breviaryitself (see pages – herein and Figures and ). In this regard, what appears onfols. r–v more closely resembles theother known organized works thatappeared in both German and English byabout : examples might include thoseon dyeing horsehair lines (Farberei in acodex from Heilsbronn and a “DyeingTract” in William Worcester’s memoran-dum book, now Sloane ) or thosethat address certain capture techniques astwo others—one on angling and one onnets—in the same two manuscripts.

Despite the Haslinger tract’s intriguingtactical advice, its principal claim to fameat the present state of knowledge is itsnumerous and comparatively precise pat-terns for tying what would now be calledartificial flies. These instructions are a

human generation older than the scoresof such recipes in the German “TegernseeFishing Advice” of about or thedozen in the English Treatyse as printed in. No older patterns in English orother languages are so far known,although the principle of imitation wasarticulated in the English Medicina pisci-um of Oxford Bodleian Library . Rawl.C. , which Willi L. Braekman’s datingwould make essentially synchronous withthe Austrian text.

“HOW ONE SHOULD BIND

HOOKS . . . ”

So what may be said regarding theHaslinger tract’s patterns for “how oneshould bind hooks”? Apart from eschew-ing the otherwise common medievalGerman terms vedern or vederangel torefer to the objects in question, this textpresents a consistent technical vocabulary

Figure . The Haslinger Breviary, fol. v: “Note the bait forthe traps.” Photo courtesy of Maggs Bros. Ltd., London.

Figure . The Haslinger Breviary, fol. r: more hook baits.Photo courtesy of Maggs Bros. Ltd., London.

and form of discourse: for each month, itcalls for a specific feather “on top” of thehook with specified colors of silk “underthat”; each monthly entry continues witha sequence of two to five further hooksdressed in the same style but differentcolor combinations “on the line.” Theresult appears to be a cast of several flieslike those nowadays favored by some fish-ers of wet flies and especially associatedwith the loch style of fly fishing familiar inthe British Isles. Instructions to use largerflies in the high water of early season andsmaller in the lower levels of fall can beread to imply fishing in running water,although the manuals compiled a genera-tion later at Tegernsee and another centu-ry later at St. Florian also explicitly advisesimilar multifly rigs for use on a lake.

Leonhard Haslinger’s feathered hooks

and lines remain anonymous, not namedafter anything at all. This leaves their imi-tative purpose entirely inferential, sup-ported mainly by the monthly calendar,which other early texts (e.g., Tegernsee,Conrad Gessner) do associate with repre-senting the insects being eaten by troutand grayling. The vocabulary and materials used in

the Haslinger tract also have much incommon with those of Tegernsee andsubsequent sixteenth-century listingsfrom the same general region. Severaldesigns feature a prüstl (“breast”), onehas a wipfel (“tuft”), and another usesthe obscure stingel feather often pre-scribed in the Tegernsee advice.

Especially the first thirty patterns in theSt. Florian collection consistently paral-lel the feather-silk-prüstl formula found

in Haslinger, but never replicate any spe-cific combination of colors and feathersfrom the older listing.Most feathers theHaslinger tract describes only in terms ofcolor (e.g., light brown, dark gray, white),so their avian origin (barnyard fowl?)remains undetermined. Others comefrom five varieties of wild birds: par-tridge, wryneck, heron, and the green andgreat white woodpeckers were and arecommon natives to the central Europeancontinent. All but the last are also used insuch later fly patterns as appear in theadvice from Tegernsee. Exotic animals areabsent. In contrast with the early Englishtradition, in which wool or fur bodieswere the norm and silk rare, but in accordwith other German and Spanish writ-ings, the second material is always silk ina remarkable diversity of colors (black,

Feather

May(1) dark(2) black(3) red

June(1) light brown(2) white(3) reddish brown

August(1) red(2) dark gray(3) white partridge(4) red stingel

September(1) ash(2) yellow(3) wryneck(4) white from woodpeckerbreast mixed with light gray

October(1) pale “mousey colored”(2) gray heron(3) dark “glass-colored”

November(1) light gray(2) green woodpecker(3) light ash(4) pale

THE ARTIFICIAL FLIES (“BOUND HOOKS”)OF THE HASLINGER BREVIARY FISHING TRACT

Comparative note: Although some color combinations of silk and the term gulden prüstelanticipate those in “Tegernsee Fishing Advice” and in the unpublished Saint Florian

“Fisch Buoch ,” no fly patterns in the breviary tract are replicated in the two later texts.

Other

gold breast, red wipfel

gold breast

gold breast

Silk

black/light browngold and blackgold and red

black and redgold and blackwhite and red

red and brownsilver and redwhite and redred and yellow

gray and light bluered and yellowgray and whitered and white

white and redgold and grayred and white

light blue and whitegreen and yellowgold and whitered and white

light brown, red, gold, silver, gray, blue,yellow). Austria’s proximity and livelytrading connections to the booming silkindustry of fifteenth-century northernItaly may be a partial explanation. Mightsome personal access to ecclesiasticalvestments also have played a role? While these earliest fly patterns now

known from the European tradition thuscall to mind slightly later representativesfrom their alpine region, an admittedlyless-than-exhaustive review of the extanttexts turns up few reasonably close dupli-cates. Haslinger’s second hook forNovem ber, with its green woodpeckerover green and yellow silk, is very likehook in the second series fromTegernsee. The third hook here pre-scribed for May calls for a red featherwith gold and red silk under it; Gessner’srecommendation to take trout in May,which the Zürich physician says he

copied from a vernacular booklet [nowlost], was a body (“belly”) of red silkribbed with gold thread and wings of redcapon feather. Gessner understood thatartificial flies were made to imitateinsects on which trout and grayling feed,and Hans Nischkauer has identified theparticular natural in question as themayfly Ephemera vulgata. Indeed, theHaslinger tract elsewhere associates thenatural mayfly with the high watersexpected during May (compare Figure). On the other hand, the spatially nearbut temporally more distant St. Floriancompilation provides no really convinc-ing matches. Overall, the well-document-ed late medie val practice of fishing withfeathered hooks along the alpine rivers ofcentral Europe shows little sign of beingbased on authoritative texts or recipesbut rather a shared regional culture withwidespread local diversity of detail.

UNDERSTANDING FISHESAND WAYS TO CATCH THEM

To grasp correctly the socioculturalplace of fishing with probably imitativeartificial flies in the mid-fifteenth-centu-ry eastern Alps, one needs clear aware-ness of the breviary’s whole fish-catchingtract in which treatment of this tech-nique was embedded. Its first part on“binding hooks” mentions no particularfish varieties. They are, however, namedin the next section, which offers baitrecipes to angle for chub, grayling, andtrout, the predominant varieties in thefast-flowing streams and smaller riversof the middle Danube basin. Specificmethods for taking each come up repeat-edly in what follows. Otherwise, theprospective fisher is thought to haveinterest only in the little gudgeon as a

Figure . The Pielach is a smallerDanube tributary with some reaches, ashere at Prinzersdorf in Lower Austria,now more affected by agricultural usesbut remaining a viable habitat for cold-water fishes. Clemens Ratschan photo.

Figure . High water on a quasi-natural reach of the river Traun.Andi Melcher photo.

bait and the crayfish as a quarry.

Overall, the Haslinger text envisages alimited range of aquatic habitats andspecies, far fewer than in other slightlylater listings.Both hook and line and various kinds

of basket traps (whether wicker or madeof twine as a modern hoop net) are well-documented medieval methods for indi-viduals or families to catch fish occasion-ally for their own subsistence or morefrequently to supply their lord or a localmarket. About seventy percent of theHaslinger tract treats such techniques.

Whereas baits for a hook must induce afish to bite and those for traps need onlydraw the quarry into an enclosure, thematerials used have some generic simi-larities. Preparations may differ or localtradition favor one object or another.Leonhard Haslinger or his scribe men-tions earthworms, insects both aquaticand terrestrial, ant eggs, frogs, leeches,small birds or mammals (whole or inparts), some fruits and vegetables, andpreparations of or with dough andmeats. Another class of baits aimed touse scent—or, perhaps, the occult powerof that superb fishing bird, the heron, orof the flour used for sacramental bread—to create an ointment to draw fishes tothe catcher’s hands. Little in the twenty-nine actual recipes on folios v–v(or the half dozen glossed into marginsof the flyleaf) differs in more than super-ficial particulars or regional details fromwhat is recommended in literally dozensof surviving fish-catching texts originat-ing in Italy, Spain, France, England, and

the German-speaking lands between thes and s.

Plainly for Leonhard Haslinger andother contemporary writers, the tech-nique of the “feathered hook,” though asdistinctive as angling with bait or fishingwith a small trap, was one of severalmeans of catching fish. None of thesemethods are presented as having anyspecial recreational orientation. Indeed,as already remarked, professional fisherson the fifteenth-century Traun usedflies. On the other hand, the inventory offisheries that Tirolian officials preparedin for self-advertised outdoorsmanEmperor Maximilian, Grand Duke ofAustria and Count of Tirol, depicts himand his courtiers angling, using nets, andperhaps fishing the fly “for fun”(German lust). We do not yet witnessseparation of capture techniques intothose associated with work and those forplay (sport).

Tactical advice about the behavior offish and ways to lure them appears in allparts of the tract, sometimes in a fairlyobvious context and elsewhere almostrandomly, thus reinforcing this text’sdistance from a planned treatise. The flyfisher is reminded to adjust the size ofthe feathered hooks to the water leveland clarity, going larger in the highwater of early May and smaller in thelow and clear flows of October andNovember. Fish behavior is seasonal,too, observed as a “general rule” of sur-face orientation in late summer and earlyfall and moving deeper through theautumn and winter. By that time, the

grayling are holding deep, so a weightedline is needed up to and after Martinmas(November ), the traditional medievalmarker for late autumn. Likewise, troutstay deep in winter and must be takenwith a set line left out overnight, perhapseven laid under ice with the gudgeon asbait. The fisher further observes theabundance of insects, such as mayfliesand beetles, in the warming but heavyflows of May. The seasons of the alpinelands resemble but are not identical tothose of lowland maritime regions ofEurope. Continual awareness and accurate

observations of seasonal phenomenaand events characterize traditional eco-logical knowledge: the orally transmittedcultural understandings of people whohave multigenerational experience oftheir familiar environment. So do thetraces of occult explanations that seepthrough many such transcriptions ofpopular knowledge. In this text, theycome out in the notion of frogs fallingwith the rain and the powers of bothsacramental flour and distillations ofheron to draw fish to a person. Earlywritings on how to catch fish belong to ahybrid zone between the oral culture ofilliterate practitioners of this craft orskill and such members of a literate eliteas Leonhard Haslinger, who, for whatev-er often quite obscure reasons, decidedto write them down. Together with regulations for the

Traun, the tract in Haslinger’s breviaryprovides a glimpse of fish-catching prac-tice in the eastern Alps at the middle ofthe fifteenth century. As such, the tract is,at least for now, the earliest knownEuropean catalog of patterns for feath-ered hooks—what would by a centurylater be openly called artificial flies. Itconfirms the artificial fly as one of sever-al kinds of fish-catching methods avail-able to ordinary medieval people in thealpine region. For readers who wish tohypothesize a transmission from Ælian’sfly fishers in second-century RomanMacedonia to the rest of Europe, thishistorical record may incrementally closea still-yawning evidentiary gap. For thosewho are charmed by the idea of function-al fly patterns more than years old, itprovides an opportunity to attempt andtest present-day replicas. The historicallycurious might be motivated to investigatelocal library, museum, and archival col-lections for comparable early recordshitherto left in uninterested oblivion. Forthis purpose, northern Italy, eastern andcentral France, and the Spanish Pyreneesare still the least-explored and likeliestfrontiers for further discoveries ofmedieval fly fishing.

�Figure . The tract calls for small flies in low, clear water

conditions, as here visible on the river Traun. Andi Melcher photo.

. As cited by Hermann Heimpel, “DieFederschnur: Wasserrecht und Fischrecht inder ‘Reformation Kaiser Siegmunds,’”Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung desMittelalters (vol. , ), –.

. Artur M. Scheiber, Zur Geschichte derFischerei in Oberösterreich, insbesondere derTraunfischerei (Linz: Verlag R. Pirngruber,), – and , published and discussedthe text from a copy then in theOberösterreichische Landesarchiv. The subse-quent governmental ordinance of like-wise allowed only tenants of full fisheries“mit der feder schnuer annglen” in their owndesignated reach of the river (Scheiber, ).

. Stiftsbibliothek St. Florian Hs. ,fols. r–v, has not to my knowledge everbeen published. Its fly patterns appear onfols. v–v.

. Richard C. Hoffmann, Fishers’ Craftand Lettered Art: Tracts on Fishing from theEnd of the Middle Ages (Toronto: Universityof Toronto Press, ), –.

. Ibid., –; Willi L. Braekman, TheTreatise on Angling in the Boke of St. Albans(): Background, Context and Text of “Thetreatyse of fysshynge wyth an Angle,” Scripta:Mediaeval and Renaissance Texts and Studies,no. (Brussels: Scripta, published under theauspices of the Universitaire Faculteiten St.-Aloysius [UFSAL], ), –.

. On the former, see Hoffmann, Fishers’Craft and Lettered Art, , and works therecited in note ; for the latter, Braekman, TheTreatise on Angling, – and –.

. Braekman, The Treatise on Angling,– and –; see also Harley asedited in Braekman, –.

. Hoffmann, Fishers’ Craft and LetteredArt, –, some of which is replicated in St.Florian Hs. , fol. v.

. Ibid., –. But the Haslinger textnever uses stingel to refer to a location orstructural element of the fly.

. St. Florian, Hs. , fols. v–r.The text eschews the prescriptive language(Nym . . .) of its collateral antecedent and alsoits reference to silk, plainly expecting thoselater readers to know how to get from a list ofingredients to a finished feathered hook.

. Richard C. Hoffmann, “The OldestUse of Silk in Fly Fishing,” The American FlyFisher (vol. , no. , Winter ), –,which now needs revision in light of theHaslinger tract itself.

. Hoffmann, Fishers’ Craft and LetteredArt, –.

. Richard C. Hoffmann, “The Evidencefor Early European Angling, III: ConradGessner’s Artificial Flies, ,” The AmericanFly Fisher (vol. , no. , Spring ), –.

. Hans E. Nischkauer, “Die Fliegen desDoctor Konrad Gesner,” Der Fliegenfischer(December –March ), –. For anEnglish summary, see Richard C. Hoffmann,“More on Gessner’s Flies,” The American FlyFisher (vol. , no. , Summer ), .

. Angling for carp (Cyprinus carpio) withroasted chicken entrails is mentioned in one ofthe several random contemporary glosses on

the front flyleaf of the breviary (see page and Figure ).

. Richard C. Hoffmann, “MedievalFishing,” in Paolo Squatriti, ed., Working withWater in Medieval Europe: Technology andResource Use (Leiden: Brill, ), –.

. Bait angling and basket traps alsooccupy similar proportions of the Tegernseeand St. Florian texts and, with large fixedweirs, take up all but one line of the Traun regulations.

. See published examples in CharlesEstienne, L’Agriculture et Maison rustique(Paris: Iaques du Puis, ), fols. r–v(book , chapters –); Gerhard Hoffmeister,“Fischer- und Tauchertexte vom Bodensee,” inGuldolf Keil, ed., Fachliteratur des Mittelalters:Festschrift fur Gerhard Eis (Stuttgart: J. B.Metzler, ), –; Braekman, The Treatiseon Angling, passim; Petrus de Crescentiis,Ruralia commoda: Das Wissen des vollkomme-nen Landwirts um , Dritter Teil: BuchVII–XII, ed. Will Richter, Editiones Heidel berg -enses (Heidelberg: C. Winter, ), –(book , chapters –); Hoffmann, Fishers’Craft and Lettered Art, – and –.

. Franz Unterkircher, ed., Das TirolerFischereibuch Maximilians I, vols. (Wien,Graz: Verlag Styria, ). Another illustrationof Maximilian angling appeared as a woodcutin his personal copy of his ghost-writtenWeisskunig memoir; see Maxmiliam I,Weisskunig: In Lichtdruck-Faksimiles nachFrühdrücken mit Hilfe der Max-Kode-Foundation, Inc. New York, H. T. Musper et al.,eds., vols. (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, ),vol. , plate , titled “Die schicklihait undpesserung aller furstlichen lust und nutz dervischerey.” See also Richard C. Hoffmann,

“Fishing for Sport in Medieval Europe: NewEvidence,” Speculum (vol. , ), –.

. I explore the emerging distinctionmore fully in Richard C. Hoffmann, “Trout andFly, Work and Play, in Medieval Europe,” inSamuel Snyder, Bryon Borgelt, and ElizabethTobey, eds., Backcasts: Historical and GlobalPerspectives in Fly Fishing and Con servation(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, forth-coming in ).

. A useful, though historically unaware,introduction to the concept is Fikret Berkes,Sacred Ecology, nd ed. (New York andLondon: Routledge, ).

. Andrew Herd, The History of FlyFishing, Volume I: The History (Ellesmere:Medlar Press, ), and –. Other read-ers may recall the curious lead sentence of themost elaborate but confusing passage in“Tegernsee Fishing Advice”: “Here a masterfrom Greece teaches his son to fish” (Hie lertain maister von kriechen landen sein sun vis-chen); see Hoffmann, Fishers’ Craft andLettered Art, –.

Figure . Austria as represented by Abraham Ortelius, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum,between and . The Traunsee and other areas familiar to the Haslingers are inthe far left of the map, the area shaded as Upper Austria. Image in the public domainfrom KB, National Library of the Netherlands, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Atlas_Ortelius_KB_PPN-av-br.jpg. Accessed December .