If you’ve ever wondered why we call a group of crows a "murder" or a bunch of lions a "pride," you can blame a 15th-century bestseller that was basically the Instagram of the Middle Ages. It’s called the Book of St Albans. Honestly, it's one of the weirdest, most influential pieces of media you’ve probably never heard of.
Printed in 1486, this wasn't some dusty theological tome. It was a lifestyle guide for the "nouveau riche" of the late medieval period. It taught people how to hunt, how to fly hawks, and how to argue about who had the fanciest coat of arms. It’s the ultimate evidence that humans have always been obsessed with status symbols and sounding smart at dinner parties.
Why the Book of St Albans was a 15th-Century Tech Marvel
To understand why this book matters, you have to look at how it was made. It came out of the schoolmaster printer at St Albans, just a few years after William Caxton brought the printing press to England. Most books back then were religious or legal. Then comes this thing—a colorful, secular manual on how to live your best aristocratic life.
It was actually one of the first books to use color printing in England. The coats of arms in the heraldry section weren't just described; they were printed with red, blue, and gold inks. That was high-tech for 1486. It made the book a must-have item for anyone trying to climb the social ladder.
The author—or at least the person credited with the sections on hunting—is often cited as Juliana Berners. She was supposedly the prioress of Sopwell Priory. A woman writing a definitive guide on blood sports and outdoor life in the 1400s? That's a massive deal. While some historians, like those at the British Library, debate exactly how much she wrote, the "Dame Julyans Barnes" legend has persisted for centuries. It gives the book a layer of mystery that most manuals from that era just don't have.
The Weird Obsession with Collective Nouns
You know how people love to correct you and say, "Actually, it’s a business of ferrets"? You can thank the Book of St Albans for that specific brand of pedantry.
The book contains a famous list called "The Companys of Beestys and Fowlys." It wasn't just about animals, though. It included humorous or judgmental terms for groups of people too. Some of these are genuinely hilarious when you realize they were being read by people in the 15th century:
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- A superfluity of nuns (pretty salty for a book supposedly written by a nun).
- An untruth of lapwings.
- A gaggle of women (yes, this is where that started, though it later got narrowed down to geese).
- A skulk of foxes.
- A blast of hunters.
It’s important to realize that many of these weren't necessarily meant to be scientific. They were linguistic games. Middle English speakers loved "terms of venery." Knowing the "right" word for a group of elk or a group of "knaves" was a way to show you were educated and belonged in high society. It was the gatekeeping of the 1480s.
Hawking, Hunting, and Social Hierarchy
The Book of St Albans is split into three main parts: Hawking, Hunting, and Coat-Armour (heraldry).
The Hawking section is particularly fascinating because it links birds of prey directly to social rank. This wasn't just about catching dinner; it was about branding. According to the book, an Emperor gets an Eagle. A King gets a Gerfalcon. A Knight gets a Saker. If you were a lowly servant, you were stuck with a Kestrel.
Imagine being a merchant who just made a ton of money in the wool trade. You want to look like old money. You buy the Book of St Albans, flip to the Hawking section, and realize you need to get yourself a specific type of hawk to ensure the neighbors respect you. It was a manual for social climbing.
The hunting section is even more technical. It dives into the "properties of a good greyhound" and how to properly "undo" (butcher) a hart. It’s gritty. It’s detailed. It’s basically the medieval version of a specialized YouTube hobby channel.
The Mystery of Juliana Berners
We need to talk about Juliana. If she really was the author, she was one of the first women to be published in the English language.
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Some scholars think she was a real person, the daughter of Sir James Berners, who was executed in 1388. Others think "Juliana Berners" might be a pseudonym or that the printer just slapped a name on it to make it sound more authoritative.
The prose in the hunting section is surprisingly poetic but also incredibly practical. It talks about the "beasts of venery" (the hart, the hind, the hare, and the boar) with a level of expertise that suggests someone who spent a lot of time in the woods, not just in a chapel. Whether she wrote it all or just compiled it, the book gave a female voice to a traditionally male-dominated space centuries before it was "normal."
Why it Still Matters in 2026
You might think a book about how to hunt with hawks in 1486 is irrelevant today. You'd be wrong.
The Book of St Albans shaped the English language in ways we don't even notice. Every time you use a collective noun, you're quoting a 500-year-old bestseller. Beyond that, it’s a perfect case study in how media creates "lifestyle" expectations.
It also represents a pivot point in history. Before the printing press, this knowledge was passed down orally among the elite. Once the Book of St Albans was printed, that "secret" knowledge was available to anyone with enough coins to buy the book. It democratized elitism.
If you look at the 1496 edition printed by Wynkyn de Worde (Caxton’s successor), he even added a section on fishing—"The Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle." This is widely considered the first book on fly fishing in the English language. Every fly fisherman today is, in a way, a descendant of the readers of this book.
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Actionable Insights for History Buffs and Bibliophiles
If this has sparked an interest in medieval manuscripts or the history of English social status, here is how you can actually engage with the Book of St Albans today without needing a time machine.
1. Access the Digital Archives
You don't need to find an original copy (which would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars). The Cambridge University Library and the British Library have high-resolution digitized versions of the 1486 and 1496 editions. Seeing the original woodcuts and the early color printing is a totally different experience than just reading about it.
2. Explore "Terms of Venery" in Modern Writing
Next time you're writing or speaking, try to revive some of the more obscure collective nouns from the book. Instead of saying "a group of people," try "a melody of harpers" or "a poverty of pipers." It's a great way to add texture to your vocabulary while keeping a nearly lost linguistic tradition alive.
3. Visit St Albans
If you're ever in the UK, the town of St Albans is more than just a commute from London. The Abbey and the local museums still celebrate their history as a printing hub. Standing in the place where the "Schoolmaster Printer" worked gives you a real sense of how revolutionary these early books were.
4. Fact-Check the "Prioress" Legend
Read the work of Margaret Wade Labarge or other medieval historians who specialize in female authors. Deciding for yourself whether Juliana Berners was a real "sporting nun" or a clever marketing invention by a 15th-century printer is a fun rabbit hole for any history enthusiast.
The Book of St Albans wasn't just a book. It was a cultural shift. It took the messy, muddy world of outdoor sports and turned it into a codified system of social rules that we are still following—consciously or not—over five centuries later.