Gaston Febus de Foix-Béarn, “Book of the Hunt” (1387)

February 2, 2008

“The dog is loyal to his master and with good and true love. The dog is of good understanding and great knowledge and great judgment. The dog has force and goodness. The dog has wisdom and is a true beast. The dog has a great memory. The dog has a great sense of smell. The dog has great diligence and great power. The dog has great valor and great subtlety. The dog has great lightness and great perception. The dog is good for giving orders to, since it learns everything just as a man does when taught. Much frolicking is in a dog. So good are dogs that rare is the man who doesn’t want to have one, either for one job or for another.”

–Gaston Febus de Foix-Béarn

from The Difficulty of Being a Dog, by Roger Grenier (translated by Alice Kaplan), The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2000.

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