| Item Description: | Bookseller description: Including Scielta di notabili avvertimenti a' vavalla ... [Italy, ca. 1725?]. Manual in Italian, in dark brown ink on paper in a steeply sloped Italian hand, with a full page drawing of a horse, with 60 points labelled with the names of the associated ailments, 50 full-page ink drawings of elaborate bits, each different, and 2 ink-drawn plans of training grounds. Further with 3 pen-drawn baroque decorated initials. Later 18th-century sheepskin parchment, sewn on 2 cords with a hollow back, manuscript spine title, marbled endpapers (blue, red, black, orange, and white spot pattern, curled). An 18th-century Italian copy of the first great manual of horsemanship since Xenophon, by Federico Grisone, first published in 1550 and here together with the second part, first published in 1571. It includes numerous illustrations, most notably the 50 full-page illustrations of elaborate bits, each different, discussed in the text. Part 1 is a detailed manual for breaking and training of horses, using methods now considered cruel, abusive, and counterproductive. Part 2 is a handbook of equine veterinary medicine, covering a wide variety of diseases and other ailments and their treatment. Each of the 60 numbered points marked on the illustration of a horse is associated with a named disease or other ailment. Part 2 is followed by an index to both parts. Although the first edition of part 2 did not name Grisone, it was clearly intended to be bound with part 1 and is accepted as his work. Biographical information about Grisone (ca. 1500-ca. 1570) remains sketchy, but he called himself a gentleman from Naples, where he established a riding academy in 1532 and quickly gained a reputation as a skilled horseman. While Xenophon's manuals, written in the fourth century BC and printed early in the 16th century, advocated a gentle approach to training horses, Grisone advocated subduing them with fear of violence and what could even be called torture. His book was nevertheless extremely successful, was translated into many languages, and influenced horse riding internationally. Already in 1623 Antoine de Pluvinel published a manual promoting a more humane approach to training horses, but Grisone's manual remained popular as can be seen by the present copy perhaps a hundred years later. It collates [A]-[C]16 (-C9,10) [D]-[F]16 [G]14 (-G12,13) [H]-[M]16 [N]20 [O]4 with O4 blank. There are no gaps in the text, illustrations or page numbering, where 4 leaves were removed: all preceding illustrations, so the copyist was probably unsatisfied with the drawings, removed them, and made the improved version on the next page. Most of the paper is watermarked with 3 empty circles topped by a cross, probably later than Heawood 217 (Lisbon 1675) and Eineder 65 (Lombardy 1669). Some quires contain a crowned coat of arms (bend, with a 5-pointed star in each field), resembling the Scotti (Piacenza) family arms, which we have not found in the literature. It does not resemble any Kaufbeuren arms we have seen. The ink has caused some browning and has sometimes eaten through the paper, resulting in some damage to the drawings of bits and leaving them fragile. Otherwise in good condition. |
|---|