EARLY HISTORY OF HORSEMANSHIP 227 



MODERN HORSEMANSHIP BAUCHER 



It is the custom of writers upon horsemanship to assert thai 

 the art was not practised after the fall of the Roman Empire, 

 until its revival by Pignatelli and others in Italy in the sixteenth 

 century. But from the fact that the sports of the tournament 

 required horses of the highest degree of training and riders of 

 the greatest skill, I believe that horsemanship was never more 

 flourishing than between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, 

 and the paintings and drawings of that period support this 

 belief. 



The reputation that Pignatelli left, however, assures us. that 

 he was a master of the art, and it is probable that he arranged 

 the method that is the foundation of those now in use. Pigna- 

 telli wrote nothing upon the subject, and the first treatise that 

 we have upon the manege is the Gli Ordini il Cavalcare (Naples, 

 1550) of Federigo Grisone, a contemporary of Pignatelli. 

 Although Pliny is said to have written a work upon horseman- 

 ship, and we have a number of books upon cavalry tactics and 

 the veterinary science, there is no treatise upon riding now 

 existing that was composed between the eras of Xenophon and 

 Grisone. 1 But, owing perhaps to the stimulation that printing 

 gave about that time to all branches of literature, a number ot 

 .authors were inspired by the Neapolitan, and there has been 

 no end to the books since written upon the subject. 



La Broue and Pluvinel, two Frenchmen, were pupils of 

 Pignatelli at Naples. The former wrote the first work upon 

 the manege that appeared in France. Pluvinel (born 1555), at 

 the early age of seventeen, had gained the reputation of being 

 the most accomplished horseman in Europe. He opened a 

 riding academy in Paris under the patronage of Henry IV., 

 and he was the instructor of Louis XIII., for whom he wrote 



1 Camerarius, in the work published in 1539, treated only of the draught- 

 horse. Some authorities say that Grisone's book was published in 1552. I 

 have never seen a copy of a date earlier than 1569. 



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