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

After their near-disappearance in the poetry of the Dolce Stil Novo, birds of prey
continue to diminish in number in aulic poetry in the Trecento. Of particular note is their
absence from the poetry of Petrarch. This absence is in a way surprising when one
considers the ample exposure he would have had to falconry both as an aspect of courtly
life and as an image in the poetry native to his adopted home. It would be reasonable to
assume that Petrarch had some experience of falconry in Avignon, since he is said to
have participated in hunting expeditions in his younger days.41 At the very least, he
would have often seen the frescoes of Simone Martini at the Papal Palace, which include
a falconry scene, and he would have heard stories of falconry expeditions there and in the
courts that he visited in Italy, perhaps even seeing cardinals and courtiers sauntering with
hawks on wrists. Likewise, his familiarity with the poetry of his place of residence might
have prompted him to include the falcon or hawk as a metaphor for love, as it is often
used in Provenqal poetry.
Petrarch does adopt some animal imagery from his predecessors, in common use
by Provenqal and Italian poets alike-the salamander, the butterfly, the swan and
other~~~-but falcons seem to appear nowhere in either the Canzoniere or his other
works. Petrarch certainly does not shy away from the metaphor of the hunt of love;
images of venery are not rare: he compares himself to the hunted deer or the fish on the
hook, and he is often shot by Cupid's arrows. However, while he often portrays himself
as pursued or caught by Love in various guises, he is never hunted by a predatory bird.
Nor is Laura ever to be found flattered by such comparisons; unlike the eyes of countless
4 1 Volpi, Guglielmo, Storia letteraria d 'Italia--I1 Trecento (Milano: Vallardi, 1907), 4 1.
42 Nicola Scarano provides many examples in "Fonti provenzali e italiane della lirica petrarchesca." In
Francesco Petrarca (Napoli: Ercolano, 197 I), 240-243.