[The Tractatus de austuribus and its adoption by Albertus Magnus]

Probably in the 60s of the 13th century Albert the Great (dagger 1280) terminated his De animalibus libri XXVI, mainly a commentary on Aristotle's Animals but a milestone in medieval zoology. In the extensive chapter De falconibus of the 23rd book, which was written around 1250 and is probably the oldest part of the whole treatise, Albert used medieval tracts on birds of prey as source material. In the article one of these tracts, the anonymous Tractatus de austuribus on the healing of hawks, is analysed and for the first time presented in a critical synoptic edition (after the Codex unicus Bethesda [MD, USA], National Library of Medicine, 73, fol. 1ra-8ra) together with the insert in Albert's De animalibus and the modern German translation of Johann Erhard Pacius (1715-1796). Pacius' German translation of De falconibus was printed as an appendix together with his translation of Frederick's II famous De arte venandi cum avibus in the year 1756. It was partly based on the German translation of book 22-26 of De animalibus published by Walther Ryff in Frankfurt/M. in 1545.