Chelsea: Ashendene Press, 1903. First thus. First Ashendene edition, one of 150 copies on paper in Subiaco type (of which 125 were for sale). This was the first prose work to appear in the Ashendene Subiaco type, created by Emery Walker and Sydney Cockerell from the first roman type used by Sweynheym and Pannartz at the press they established in 1465 at Subiaco near Rome. Octavo. 48 pp. Frontispiece and other illustrations reproduced by Charles Keates by woodcut from the Wynkyn de Worde Boke of St. Albans. Handset in Subiaco type and printed in black with an opening initial flourished in red. Original limp vellum, spine lettered in gilt. Etched bookplate of James Curle (1862-1944), Scottish archaeologist, solicitor, and book collector. Spine mildly soiled, a Near Fine copy.

This treatise on fishing was included in the 1496 edition of The Boke of Saynt Albans printed by Wynken de Worde, which also included sections on hawking and hunting. Considered one of the earliest known English texts on recreational fishing and the first on fly fishing, it significantly influenced angling literature, most notably serving as inspiration for The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton (1653).

The Boke, which first appeared in a 1486 edition, is attributed to Dame Juliana Berners, a noblewoman and prioress of the Sopwell Nunnery near St. Albans. Berners was the second woman writer to have her work printed in English – after a translation of Christine de Pizan's Moral Proverbs (Enseignements moraux) was printed by William Caxton in 1478 – and the first woman writing in English to have her work printed.

Franklin, p. 218; Hornby XVI, Ransom, p. 204. (Item #7307)