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Falconry
by Wicca - october 2003
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
It is a honour for me to present You the castle quarter dedicated
to falconry.
Here you can discover the secrets of this art and the mastery
of our trainers.
The origins of this art are going back thousand of years ago
when the man understood that was easier to hunt certain kinds
of prey by using predaceous animals.
Hardly, o noblemen, is to identify the place where falconry
was born.
Historians and fans have tried to put together the path to
loyalty between man and predators.
The more ancient witness about this it's possible to find
in China 800 years before the birth of our Lord Jesus. In
this period China was much more advanced in the art of taming
animals than the rest of Europe or Middle Orient. Drawings
and painting of the Hang Dynasty (206 B.C.) represent hunting
scenes with falcons. We don't have to forget the place called
Chang-an (actually X'ian) at this time a florid market, where
caravans departed to all parts of the world. Probably was
this the route used by falconry to spread out. Also Hun populations,
always coming from the Mongolian Steppes, used falconry to
catch animals.
At the beginning of the Christian Era some councils spoke
of falconry: in 506 the council of Agda established that clergy
men cannot practice hunt by rapacious birds and the same rule
was reaffirmed in the councils of Epaon (517 A.D.) and Macôn
(585 A.D.).
A little after Longobards reported falconry in their legislation
and Charles Magnus established precise rules on the detention
of falcons: for example he published an edict where prison
was fixed for thief of a trained falcon and possible its substitution
with a same level trained falcon. Anyway falconry, as easy
to find, was permitted and practiced only by aristocrats also
because to train a falcon require time and money.
Precise technic of training were apprehended by Arabs during
crusades, in particular the use of the Hood (different
from the actual one, but with same functions), instead of
the Seeling, a very painful operation for the animal.
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In
Italy falconry spread overall thanks to Arabs, Normands and
Germans in the south (X-XIII centuries); these last two populations
bound each other in a marriage where emperor Frederick II
(1194-1250) sprang out.