FalconAr aims to highlight a huge patrimony, manuscript and printed, documentary, material, artistic and symbolic, that for centuries was part of the history of the Crown of Aragon and of Western Europe. In order to do this we shall present all kinds of content and sources related to falconry. In this way we wish, on the one hand, to make our work visible and transmit this knowledge to the general public, and, on the other, to stimulate research and, in this respect, to make this website a work tool at the service of researchers.

A new open access digital resource has just been published: FalconArn - Falconry in the Cronw of Aragon. FalconAr is a research project formed by a group of researchers trained in different disciplines who are interested in studying the history of falconry, i.e., hunting with birds, and all the activities associated with it, during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in the Hispanic cultural sphere, and most particularly in the Crown of Aragon. It is a resource directed by Carmel Ferragud (Universitat de València) and Ricardo M. Olmos de León (Independent researcher) and it has started thanks to a funded project AICO (Generalitat Valenciana) of the Universitat d'Alacant, directed by Antoni Mas i Miralles. FalconAr is a research program incorporated to the website of the group Sciència.cat, directed by Lluís Cifuentes (Universitat de Barcelona) to which the coordinators belong.

Falconry was strongly established in the territories of the old Crown of Aragon. Its development could not be understood, however, without the intense cultural and personal contacts between western and eastern lands, particularly those influenced by Islam, that made it possible to share a large amount of indispensable materials, animals and knowledge. Falconry serves us as a pretext for studying these cultural exchanges and influences, between the Christian and Islamic worlds especially, but also between peoples from northern Europe and from the Mediterranean, and very especially the islands (Crete, Malta, Sardinia and the Balearic Isles). In doing so we delve into varied disciplines such as the history of science and medicine, social history and that of Catalan, Castilian, Aragonese and Italian culture and philology.

We are well aware of the great contributions that for nearly a century have been made by different authors and their followers, which deserve to be mentioned and to which we shall dedicate space. We feel indebted to them and it is our wish to continue adding to the knowledge of falconry on the foundations already laid from different European territories, and in our own country too.

We at FalconAr intend to make an exhaustive study of falconry taking into consideration multiple aspects that shaped this hunting activity: practices and knowledge (ornithology, hunting, medicine), symbolism, material culture, society (hunters, falconers, trainers and everybody directly or indirectly involved), technical vocabulary, regulations associated with hunting with birds, and so on.

FalconAr aims to highlight a huge patrimony, manuscript and printed, documentary, material, artistic and symbolic, that for centuries was part of the history of the Crown of Aragon and of Western Europe. In order to do this we shall present all kinds of content and sources related to falconry. In this way we wish, on the one hand, to make our work visible and transmit this knowledge to the general public, and, on the other, to stimulate research and, in this respect, to make this website a work tool at the service of researchers.