"Fysshynge" and The Private Library (Part II)

Books about fish, and fishing, tend to be focused on one of three broad areas (though exceptions are not uncommon):

• description and classification (as exemplified by the early illustrated natural history books we noted in yesterday's post, and as published even to this day in titles like Nelson's Fishes of the World)
• recreational or sport fishing, also known as angling
• traditional fishing, which is concerned with the survival value (for humans) of fish as a food source

Depictions of angling appear in Egypt as early as 2000 BCE.  It is perhaps unsurprising, therefore, that one of the earliest printed books, The Boke of St. Alban, should include a Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle in its second edition of 1496.  (Of the dozen artificial lures described therein, six still are in use today.)

Angling, and the earliest books published about angling, were written by and/or for nobility--everyone else was too busy fishing for survival.  Because fishing is treated in such books as a sport, the natural focus of these books was on "where to find fish, how to approach them, and what sort of bait to use:"

      

There was, as might be expected, a rather intense and continued focus on equipment:

 

Arguably the most famous book ever published about angling is Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler.  First published in 1653, the work was added to continuously (by Walton himself) over the next quarter-century. In print almost continually since its first appearance, the book is a great favorite of illustrators:

      

Whereas early angling  books like The Compleat Angler contained not only technical information (e.g., lures & similar tackle) but also paeans to fishing itself, modern angling books tend to be either about one or the other, but not about both:

       

In many respects this division reflects the significant changes in the natural world that have taken place over the past several centuries, and how humankind has both instigated and responded to such changes.  Time for recreational pursuits, for example, is not something that many folks in the modern industrialized nations have in abundance (or so we think); rivers and seas are more polluted than ever; fish species are disappearing worldwide.

The last major category of books about fish and fishing address all of these issues and more, for they are concerned with the survival value of fishes as food.  This is a matter we will examine in more detail in tomorrow's post....