| Item Description: | Michael Laird, bookseller, description: Folio (350 x 235 mm). 1 p. (Preface) + 121 numbered pages of text + 10 pages of "Remarques et notes supplementaires" and a table of contents. The word "TRAITE" (and other writing) can be seen in reverse on the inside of the front board, indicating that a sort of preliminary title-page was pasted down (sic) or is no longer present and appears as offsetting opposite the first leaf of text (the "Preface" leaf, which is unnumbered. Leaf 47/48 loose. Contemporary French blue-green pastepaper boards, breen cloth spine and corner tips (shaken and quite worn). Preserved in a blue cloth fitted case. Autograph Manuscript, written three years before the first edition (Paris: Madame Huzard, 1807) of which a copy is held at VHC. The present manuscript, boldly signed by Charles Barentin de Montchal, has a number of substantive corrections in the text between lines, in the margins, and at the end (written on blue paper). As is stated on the title-page of the first edition, this was an extract from the work of Jean Brugnone (director of the Veterinary School at Turin), translated from the Italian, for the use of all who raise horses. The present text was no mere translation: as we learn from the Preface, Charles Barentin silently incorporated his own observations, as well as additional notes from Brugnone himself after the first Italian edition was printed. ("J'ai inséré dans ce Traité des observations faites depuis l'impression de l'original , et que M. Brugnone a daigné m'adresser, et quelques notes que j'ai cru de quelque utilité"). The contents of this work include sections on the "government" of stud horses, including stables and grooms; distinction of provincial studs; Definition of the word "Haras"; Choice and composition of grasslands and pastures, their division and distribution, and how to maintain them; Choice of plants and herbs eaten by stud-horses; Qualities of the water which the horses of Haras must drink; Preference given to a dry and mountainous soil; Pasture enclosures, and their division; Disposition of Colts, etc.; Drinking troughs; Construction and distribution of stables and drinking troughs of a stud farm; The work of the Grooms; Number of stables required; Internal arrangement of stables; Infirmaries and care of newborn foals; Temperament of different horses according to countries of origin (e.g. Tartar, Turkey, Hungary and Transylvania, East Indies, China, Spain, England, France, Denmark, Germany, Low Countries); Cross-breeding; Nursing foals from the moment of their birth until they pass into the hands of the grooms; Dressage; How to know when the mare is in heat; When and how to promote copulation; Conception and gestation; The fetus; Delivery and the mare's confinement; Care of the mare after delivery; Food for foals after weaning; Care of the mane and tale of foals; Accustoming foals to the saddle, harness, and fittings (patience is recommended!); Medicine; castration of foals; diseases in stud farms; Placenta extraction and inversion; Abortion; Worms and lice; Flow of urine; Abnormal growths; Mortality. Michaud (Biographie Universelle, vol. LVII, p. 157) correctly identifies the translator as M. Charles de Barentin, "Page de la Petite Curie et Capitaine de Cavalerie. Querard (France Litteraire) wrongly attributes the work to Vicomte Louis de Barentin de Montchal. According to Mennessier de la Lance, the translator was either Charles Louis Dreux, Comte de Barentin de Montchal, or Charles Paul Nicolas, Vicomte de Barentin de Montchal. |
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