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

CHAPTER 3: Falconry and cranes in Dante.
Although they scarcely appear in the rest of his opus, Dante includes falcons and
hawks throughout his Commedia, primarily in hunting images used as metaphors for the
spiritual quest for God. However, this is not the only type of bird that he uses in this
way. The repeated use he makes of crane images throughout his work parallels that of
the falcons. To examine the falcons that appear in the Commedia alongside these cranes
will provide a greater understanding of the patterns of bird imagery that Dante uses.'
Falcons and cranes both have characteristics that make them suitable to illustrate
the divine order and the education of the soul.2 The falcon in training, long seen as a
symbol of secular lovers in lyric poetry, adapts well to being used to illustrate the
orienting of the soul towards the divine, an image used earlier by Hugh de Fouilloy in his
Aviarium in speaking of the education of his lay-br0thers.j The characteristics of the
crane that make it an apt participant in afterlife education are the fact that cranes
migrate, their habit of appearing to dance in circles on the ground after having fed, the
tendency for a group of migrating cranes to form letters in flight, and their system of
rotating leadership in flight, which suggests vigilance and a care for one an~ther.~
' For an extensive treatment of cranes in the Commedia, see my work, "Dante's Cranes and the Pilgrimage
of Poetic Inspiration," Rivista di studi italiani 13, 1 : 1995, 1-13.
In I1 volo della mente, Boccassini provides a discussion of the spiritual role Dante gives to domesticated
birds of prey and its contrast with Dante's negative attitude toward the general sport of hunting, with or
without birds, in her chapter, "La falconeria nell'opera di Dante."
See Chapter 1 for more details on the Aviarium.
4 Dante's friend and teacher, Brunetto Latini, describes cranes thus in Li Livres dou Tresor:
Grues sont oisiau qui volent a eschieles, en maniere de chevaliers qui vont en bataille; et tozjors va li
uns devant l'autre [...I et les maine et conduit et chastie de sa voiz, et trestuit li autre ensuient celui et
obeissent a sa loi. Et quant la chevetaine est enroee et sa voiz es auques defaillie, ele n'a pas honte que
une autre soit mise en son leu, et ele va par derriere avec les autres [...I entre toutes, la disime veille et
garde les autres qui se dorment [...I d'un leu, toutefoiz veille l'une une pierre dedans le pie qui ne la
laisse pas endormir. Les autres vont environ [...I et quant eles apercoivent chose ou il ait paril,