Traité de Fauconnerie (19th C), the Art of Falconry

 

Titlepage of 'Traité de Fauconnerie', 1844-1853

(Facsimile of this treatise is available at amazon, collectible edition starting on 65 USD direct link provided here) AbeBooks has another facsimil edition, link here

Falconry is the art of using a trained raptor to hunt other birds or small mammals. The practice dates to -at least- 2000 BC and birds used for falconry include buzzards, eagles, Harris hawk, Peregrine falcons, Lanner falcons, Gyrfalcons, etc. For a better approach to this discipline I do recommend the complete wikipedia article.

The Traité de Fauconnerie by Hermann Schlegel and Abraham H Verster is online available (direct link provided) at Heinrich Heine University, Dusseldorf. Even a pdf version can be downloaded at a reasonable resolution (176 pages, 26 Mb). 

This is a real rare book: less than one hundred copies were originally issued in the first edition between 1844 and 1853, of which only about fifty copies are known to have survived. The Abu Dhabi National Library paid more than £95,000 for a first edition copy last year to outfit their falconry collection