The Complete Angler, or Contemplative Man's Recreation : Being a discourse on rivers, fish-ponds, fish and Fishing. In two parts.

Walton, Izaak & Cotton, Charles

Publication Date: 1815

About this Item

London : Printed for Samuel Bagster, in the strand, 1815, 8°, 514, (20) pp., 15 plates including 2 portraits, ( 4 pp. Advertisements), full green gold tooled morocco lether. Second Bagster Edition! Fifteen full-page plates; eight after Wale, two music plates, two of fishing tackle, the cartouche of the title-page of the 1653 first edition on half-title, all engraved by Philip Audinet; a portrait of Walton after Huysmans engraved by C. Hayter; a portrait of Cotton after Lely engraved by J. Linnell. In addition there are seventeen silver engravings of fish; a map of the River Lea and one of the River Dove; a facsimile of Walton's autograph and one of Cotton's; and seven engravings in the text, all by Audinet. There are six engravings in the text by G. Greig after Linnell and also two large woodcuts in the text. Piscator, the fisherman, in the course of a five-day expedition, teaches his friend how to bait a hook and catch several species of freshwater fish and then how to cook them. The majority of the book is comprised of a dialogue between Piscator, the fisherman, and Venator, the hunter, in which the former attempts to persuade the latter of the practical and spiritual merits of angling. Piscator reminds Venator that Saints Peter, Paul and John "were all Fishers" before quoting verses from other keen anglers: Montaigne, George Herbert and John Donne. The conversation takes place over several days on a fishing trip in the Lea Valley, during which they journey from Tottenham to Ware in Hertfordshire. After the Bible and Shakespeare, The Complete Angler remains one of the most reprinted books in the English language. Coigney, 21d.

Seller Inventory # 64008

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Complete Angler, or Contemplative Man's Recreation : Being a discourse on rivers, fish-ponds, fish and Fishing. In two parts.
• Publication Date: 1815
• Seller catalogs:
  • Biologie