Have a chat with Emperor Frederick II – about falcons, preferably
We have built a little time machine. Now you can put your questions to Emperor Frederick II, who wrote the great book on falconry almost 800 years ago. He is happy to answer, especially if it is about birds.
Frederick II (1194–1250) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Sicily and a passionate falconer. His book De arte venandi cum avibus – "On the art of hunting with birds" – is built on what he saw and tried for himself. He would not simply take Aristotle's word for it.
In our new chat the emperor answers from the book's own text. We translated it ourselves from Latin, from Schneider's printed edition of 1788. It contains books 1 and 2, and the chat draws on 137 chapters from that Latin edition of just over 400 pages. The complete work with all six books runs to more than 1,400 pages today – so the emperor still has plenty to tell. Books 3–6, on hunting cranes, herons and waterfowl, survive only in manuscripts, and he says so honestly.
You can ask about almost anything in the book: why birds migrate, how they moult, and what a falconer needs to know. An example:
Why do birds migrate?
At last a question about the birds themselves – come closer! … "The most important reason is that the season changes from warmth to cold. Another is food: in the cold lands, water and earth freeze, so the birds cannot find anything to eat." (Book 1, chapter 18)
Two falconers with their falcons. From Frederick's falconry book, manuscript Pal. lat. 1071 (13th century), Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Public domain.
He also answers other things: where he lived, his family, the North and the pope. He does so with a small sigh, though:
What about the pope?
The pope. Yes. We draw a deep breath – and answer: …
And if you ask about Canute the Holy, he brightens up:
Canute the Holy had a falcon on his seal – did you know him?
King Canute with the falcon on his seal? Then he was a man after Our own heart. But let Us keep to what is known: …
This is what the chat looks like on a phone. Screenshot: Eagle World.
There is also a quiz, a small glossary and "today" boxes that explain how we see things today.
The chat does not use any AI service. The answers come from the text, and we store nothing about you. Try it at home before you come to a flight demonstration. You will soon discover that the emperor would rather talk about falcons.