Origen y Dignidad de la Caça

The author of this work, a certain Juan Mateos, identifies himself as the King’s greatest crossbowman, and is splendidly pictured on the architectural title page. He begins his treatise on the Origin and Dignity of Hunting by claiming that “The royal exercise of hunting was originated in order to defend men against the wild beasts and to protect their cattle, whose theft was the cause of their deaths” and “the dignity of this noble exercise is an activity for kings and princes, and the most prepared teacher who can best teach the military art, in both theory and practice”. The work is dedicated to the Conde Duque de Olivares and was printed in 1634 by Francisco Martínez (active 1627-45) in Madrid. The text, printed in an elegant Roman script, is adorned by three folded copperplates depicting hunting scenes, engraved initials, and other ornaments. Antonio Sancho Dávila y Toledo, Marqués de Velada (1590–1666) said of the wonderful work: “The treatise is a teacher of real exercises, and is robust, useful for all, and not easy; in this lesson entertained with decorum and illustrated with assisted successes of incomparable majesty, the author deserves praise and the book deserves a printing license to communicate it…”