Henri de Ferrières (14th c.). Author of the curiously disparate, bipartite Livres du Roy Modus et de la Reine Ratio (dated 1354-76), in prose with occasional verses. In the first part, Le Livre de la chasse, an invaluably comprehensive treatise, Roi Modus explains in dialogue and with moralizations the different hunting methods and habits of game animals; he adds a verse debate on the value of falconry as against hunting [see Gace de la Buigne]. The following Songe de pestilence stages Modus and Ratio complaining before God that Charity, Truth, and Humility are supplanted by the World, the Flesh, and the Devil—hence the disasters of the 14th c.
[Jane Taylor]
