She was the author of treatises on field sports, such as hunting, and many people credit her with the entirety of The Boke of Saint Albans.

A facsimile of The Boke of Saint Albans, published in 1810 by Joseph Haslewood, contains an introduction which examines the authorship of the book and the biography of Juliana Berners.

[1] Based on her last name, scholars suggest that she was either the daughter of the courtier Sir James Berners or wife to the lord of the manor of Julians Barnes.

They include remarks on the virtues of environmental conservation and on etiquette for field sports, concepts which would not become commonly accepted for hundreds of years after the publication of these treatises.

[3] Though so little is known about her life, and her claim to the authorship of The Boke of Saint Albans cannot be absolutely verified, numerous women's fly-fishing clubs in Europe and the United States are named for Berners.

The only clue to the authorship of the Treatise, and the only documentary evidence of her, is an attribution at the end of the original 1486 book that reads: "Explicit Dam Julyans Barnes in her boke of huntyng."

1496), also without a title page, begins: This present boke shewyth the manere of hawkynge and huntynge: and also of diuysynge of Cote armours.