Published by the London printer Henry Middleton in 1577.
Probably written by William Samuel

he Arteis justly renowned for its status as the second published work on fishing in England, and for its 'inspiration' of Walton, less than a century later. Patient detective work has revealed that the author might have been one William Samuel, vicar of Godmanchester, and (perhaps) sometime fisherman on the Ouse. The Arte features a lively debate between Viator and Piscator, with dry interventions from Piscator's long-suffering wife, Cisley. Quite clearly, Walton took the dialogue in the Arte as his model, not to mention some of the text. It has become fashionable to pillory him for doing so, but what he did has to be seen against the standards of his day; in this light, he was in good company, because in the typical spirit of the times, John Dennys and Gervase Markham pillaged the Arte too. Samuel's little known work therefore has a unique status, as an inspiration to those who followed. While it lacks any discussion of fly fishing, the Arte gave English literature a model of fishing as a sport worthy of gentlemen, marking the beginning of a culture of sport fishing in Britain that would move its anglers away from the subsistence tradition of Europe. In many senses, the Arte is the origin of the extraordinary proliferation of fishing literature in the English language.

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