Hunting with Hounds in Neo-Latin

This chapter explores the wide-ranging imitation and appropriation of Grattius in Europe during the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries following the rediscovery of the text in the early years of the sixteenth century. Particular attention is focused on Giovanni Darcio’s poem, Canes (1543), Girolamo Fracastoro’s poem, Alcon (attested from at least 1555), and Jacques Vanière’s version of the Cynegetica in the sixteenth and final book of his magisterial work, Praedium Rusticum (1730). The chapter demonstrates how these authors were attracted to Grattius’ poem for his focus on (animal) medicine and his celebration of the value of human skill, agility, and ingenuity.

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