author
Juliana Berners
An early English writer wrapped in mystery, she is traditionally linked to one of the first major books in English about hunting, hawking, and fishing. Her name is especially remembered for a pioneering treatise on angling that helped shape sporting literature.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Very little about her life can be confirmed with certainty. Juliana Berners is generally placed in the 15th century and is often described as an English writer, sometimes also as a prioress connected with Sopwell Priory near St Albans, though modern sources note that parts of her story are uncertain.
She is traditionally associated with The Book of Saint Albans (1486), a well-known compilation on heraldry, hawking, and hunting. She is especially famous for A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle, printed in 1496, which is often described as the earliest known English book devoted to recreational fishing.
Whether every work attributed to her was truly written by the same person remains debated, but her reputation has lasted because she stands near the beginning of English prose about field sports and is often counted among the earliest English women writers.