Dissertation on Birds of Prey and the Sport - the Falconry Heritage ...

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Monna Giovanna re-enters his life when, after her husband dies, she takes her son in the summer to an estate near where Federigo lives, and the son becomes friends with him through their shared love of hunting and of Federigo's falcon. Then, her son falls gravely ill, and declares that he'd recuperate if his mother would get him Federigo's falcon. Monna Giovanna is embarrassed to ask this, knowing Federigo's feelings for her and also how fond he is of the falcon and how he depends on it for his livelihood. For the sake of her son, she visits Federigo to ask. The reason she gives for her visit is that she invites herself to dine with him to make up for the trouble he's had from loving her: "io son venuta a ristorarti de' danni li quali tu hai gii avuti per me."28 When he tries to find something to feed her that is worthy of honoring her, he finally realizes how poor he is, and serves her at table the only good thing he has left to eat: his beloved falcon. Afterwards, she asks the favor of him for which she had come: "non per lo amore che tu mi porti, a1 quale tu di niente se' tenuto, ma per la tua nobilta, la quale in usar cortesia s'e maggiore che in alcuno altro mostrata." She appeals to his chivalric nature: his courtesy and nobility. Federigo bursts into tears at his inability to help her and explains why, showing her the remaining beak, feet and feathers. She is touched by this gesture of his, which comes out of the fact that not even poverty could shake his belief in courtesy and generosity: "la grandezza dello animo suo, la quale la poverta non avea potuto nC potea rintuzzare, molto seco medesima commendo." Monna Giovanna's son passes away, and her brothers urge her to remarry. Federigo's "grandezza d'animo" prompts her to declare her intention to marry him and none other. And they live happily ever after; Federigo, "il quale cosi fatta donna e cui 28 While, in the immediate sense, in lying about her motives, she causes him great trouble, in the long run she does as she says, albeit in a way she had not planned.
egli cotanto amata avea, per moglie vedendosi, e oltre a cio ricchissimo, in letizia con lei, miglior massaio fatto, termino gli anni suoi." The desperate situation in which Federigo finds himself when Monna Giovanna comes to visit is entirely due to his attempts to live the courtly ideal. He has already begun to break the rules of his society at this point: he is using his falcon not for recreational hunting as he ought, but as a lower-class hunter would, primarily in order to provide food for his table. In fact, in following the dictates of courtliness when she visits, he not only destroys the only courtly thing he still owned, but he breaks the rules of hunting etiquette even further: not only is he dependent on the falcon for his food in general, he is literally reduced to eating the provider of the food, and his pet. The way Federigo had lived was completely impractical, caring nothing for money, but only honor and courtesy in the old fashion. Boccaccio makes it clear at the end, however, that the value of this attitude toward life is not completely discredited by the windfall he gets by marrying Giovanna. It is in fact his unbridled courteous behavior that wins him the lady he desires, and the money he needs. In serving his falcon for dinner he makes the ultimate sacrifice for his lady, and she is impressed enough to decide that, idealistically, she herself will marry a man who can give her nothing in a practical sense. At the same time, however, it is demonstrated that living by the rules offin amors in reality is an impossibility in the money-oriented culture in which he finds himself. Having sacrificed to his lady every last scrap of courtly trappings that he possessed, down to his last falcon,29 he surrenders to the exigencies of his situation and starts a new life as 29 Sergio Zatti finds this to be a necessary condition of the outcome: "I1 falcone rappresenta ... l'ultimo segno di nobilta di cui l'aristocratico dovra spogliarsi per soddisfare il desiderio e avviare il suo nuovo corso 'borghese'." In "Federigo e la metamorfosi del desiderio," Strumenti critici XI1 (1978): 243-4.
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Birds of Prey and the Sport of Falc
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O Copyright by Teresa Flora Lucia G
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Birds of Prey and the Sport of Falc
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TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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This dissertation is dedicated to m
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medieval Italian literature is the
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poetry. The Sicilians adopt quite a
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CHAPTER 1 : Falconry as symbols bef
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The ancient Greeks and Romans did n
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hawk. The hawk responds that it is
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If a falcon sees the dead body of a
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The popularity of falcons and hawks
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animali, including a section on fal
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Hrabanus Maurus, in his eighth cent
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earlier; second, that there is a pe
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evolution of the late medieval view
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chapter that consists entirely of a
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century, is not spiritual, but a vo
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conveying the idea of Caesar's fier
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on falcons and hawks, telling about
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it is made typically of something t
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Having established the popularity o
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circle of acquaintances to illustra
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C'una noch sornnav' en pascor Tal s
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Amors o fai si com lo bons astors q
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chosen a mate so far above him in e
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Inferno, Chaucer is in this place t
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tercel eagle states that she should
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she gave in for fear that he might
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CHAPTER 2: Falconry in Duecento and
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nonexistent in the poetry of the sc
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da c'omo vene tosto a compimento. B
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It seems as if the text were meant
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We find here the image of the nibbi
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to be forceful like the sparrowhawk
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10 va' vedere, e par tenere, lo suo
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e disleale, larone e traito, che wo
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volgesi a1 grido, quand' egli e sta
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the hunter. In the stanza in which
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practice of falconry does not carry
Page 82 and 83: celebrates throughout his corona-in
Page 84 and 85: These crows and vultures, disagreea
Page 86 and 87: previous ladies who inspired poets,
Page 88 and 89: y Guido Cavalcanti. Matteo Correggi
Page 90 and 91: who far from being beyond the reach
Page 92 and 93: - I' mi son qui selvaggia pasturell
Page 94 and 95: The ladylfalcon is much less hostil
Page 96 and 97: la carta de le regole d'amore, dove
Page 98 and 99: The ways in which falcons and crane
Page 100 and 101: crane" among poets, Dante feels a f
Page 102 and 103: hitless.* Like the other servants o
Page 104 and 105: esponsibility and order, is, howeve
Page 106 and 107: Unlike the birds in Inferno, the fa
Page 108 and 109: Bastiti, e batti a terra le calcagn
Page 110 and 111: Bonagiunta portrays Dante's being i
Page 112 and 113: (Purgatorio XXVI, 133-5) The crane
Page 114 and 115: compared to them have reached the g
Page 116 and 117: source of the formation of letters,
Page 118 and 119: a me medesima uscita di mente, non
Page 120 and 121: E la madre questo vedendo vuole mor
Page 122 and 123: Upon hearing that it was an old man
Page 124 and 125: tal es mon talens, Ke m'inervia d'o
Page 126 and 127: expectation of the class status of
Page 128 and 129: Ardito avendo uno suo figliuolo nom
Page 130 and 131: "'tua figliuola B stata si vaga del
Page 134 and 135: a "miglior massaio" in a society co
Page 136 and 137: domestication or training of the fa
Page 138 and 139: BIBLIOGRAPHY Aelianus, Claudius. De
Page 140 and 141: Consoli, Joseph P., ed. The Novelli
Page 142 and 143: Lewis, C. S. Allegory of Love: a St
Page 144: . Transcription and Visual Poetics
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