Transcriber’s Note:
New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.
The
Boke of Saint Albans
Introduction.
Several independent printing presses were establishedin England before the close of the fifteenth century;and from them issued numerous books which areinvaluable to all students of antiquity from the lightthey throw upon the social habits and literaryprogress of our nation. Of these it may safely be said that not oneexceeds in interest that work of an unknown typographer, which ishere presented in facsimile, and which, from the town in which itwas compiled, as well as printed, is known to all bibliographers as“The Book of St. Albans.” This work has always been a favourite,partly because our feelings are appealed to in favour of the writerwho for centuries has taken rank as England’s earliest poetess, andis still, in all our Biographical Dictionaries, reckoned among “nobleauthors;” and partly because we love mysteries, and a mystery hasalways enshrouded the nameless printer. The subjects, too, socuriously alliterative—Hawking, Hunting, and Heraldr