The Goal of the Wise

An illuminated miniature in the upper left corner depicts the Emperor Frederick II. He is seated on a wide, low bench-throne with patterned cushions, wearing a crown and a blue mantle over a purple and red patterned tunic. He holds a flowering branch or scepter in his right hand. To his right, a small predatory bird is perched on a low stand.

...revealing the difficulties surrounding the business of this art. We ask, however, that everyone might justly derive something from this book of ours, out of its nobility alone. What is suggested to be read by the most august and pious one himself seems to be provided by providence. I have also studied... when he wished to study... partly how to hold the art, and we did not omit the grammar. We would leave behind memory, and thus we did it, and they were more... and the words were kept in intention, not in the form of speaking, for... lacuna due to hole in parchment ...Again, through the strength of a general assumption, as much of the spirit as of the species, toward the knowledge of those things that pertain to hunting. In which, indeed, the definition of consideration is more conveniently and intently manifested in this book on hunting, to those who are to know their own. But [we strive] to reduce the certainty of the art, since none know it well until now, nor the power. The mode of acting is partly proemial introductory, and of the power of creatures it is indeed manifold: partly divisive, partly definitive, partly convenient for...

...being and acting. And [for] the knowledge of these causes. And there are other modes in the following course that he wished to give, where the magnificent man and lover of wisdom, the divine Augustus Frederick the Second, Emperor of the Romans, of Jerusalem, and of Sicily, [is the subject]. The utility is great; for nobles and powerful men, by the use of this art, have found joys in the fullness of their art in worldly matters. It is also given, and too, nobles and barons were lovers [of it] from antiquity; nor could it ever be that through this art it is had, and not only to be worn out by experience lacuna due to hole in parchment ...he manifested. Among things, indeed, and huge, [held] by the son himself, something I am in a way [of seeing], for this is a famous book: The Book of the Divine Augustus Frederick the Second, Emperor of the Romans, of Jerusalem, and of Sicily, on the Art of Hunting with Birds, which... to the manifestation of the operations of nature in hunting, which is done through things. Truly, the ways of treating [it] are distinguished; the first ought to be evidently clear, for the name itself, and in nature, or in the choice, which are united by reason; for fire, which according to nature... because they place those who...

A large horizontal miniature at the bottom of the page illustrates falconry. On the left, a crowned figure (the Emperor) sits and gestures toward two figures on the right. One of these figures is seated and wears a specialized hood or hat, holding a bird of prey on a gloved fist. Another figure stands behind him, also gesturing. The ground is decorated with small, stylized floral clusters.