The Secrets of Angling

Title page of first edition (1613)in the Bodleian, shelfmark 8vo.D 15 Art.
Title page of 3rd edition, 1630, cropped fore-edge and foot. Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C.
Title page 4th edition, 1652. Cropped at fore-edge.

The Secrets of Angling was a book written by John Dennys. It was the earliest English poetical treatise on fishing, first published in 1613 in London. A didactic pastoral poem in 3 books, in the style of Virgil's Georgics. It was published in 4 editions until 1652, examples of which are amongst the rarest books in existence.

Dennys's poem was published anonymously, 4 years posthumously, and for 198 years the poem was misattributed, its authorship remaining a mystery until 1811.