Abstract
The author presents a specific kind of activity of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance – hunting. She analyses the point of view of the topic in selected source texts and she tries to define if hunting was treated as a physical activity. The source basis of this work is the Latin poem Carmen de statura, feritate ac venatione bisontis (Song about a bison) by Mikołaj Hussowski, two Old English pieces by Juliana Barnes On Hunting and On Hawking and Latin treaty about hawking De arte venandi cum avibus (About the art of hunting with birds) by the German emperor Frederick II Hohenstauf. The works of Juliana Berners were written in the form of practical and rough manuals focusing on the terms used in hunting and hawking. The treaty by the emperor Frederick is a dissertation showing the wide knowledge of the nature of the author. According to the emperor, hawking is the art, in which the power of mind and person’s character lets him rule over the wild and predatory birds. In the Song about a bison by Hussowski, the major topic is the admiration of the beauty and power of homeland nature. The participation in hunting, in the opinion of Hussowski, improves the fitness and health