De arte venandi cum avibus

On the first page there is a dedication to "M. E."[3] Several names have been proposed for the identity of M. E. including Malik El-Kamil (Al-Kamil), a Sultan of Egypt who died in 1238[5] and "magister Encius", a master falconer of Frederick's court.

In a letter dating from 1264 to 1265 addressed to Charles I of Anjou, the Milanese merchant Guilielmus Bottatus offered to sell two large volumes that had once belonged to Frederick II.

[7] This description only partially matches the contents of the surviving copies of the De arte venandi cum avibus and some scholars have suggested that the letter may have been referring to other manuscripts.

[8] The manuscript belongs to the two book version and is illustrated with brilliantly coloured, extraordinarily lifelike, accurate and minute images of birds, their attendants, and the instruments of the art.

He was also familiar with De Scientia Venandi per Aves, a treatise by the Arab falconer Moamyn which was translated into Latin at his court by Master Theodore of Antioch, and much copied.

[2] While the historian Charles Haskins wrote approvingly of the bird illustrations and their lifelike appearance, the zoologist William Yapp found them largely inaccurate.