[ MANUSCRIPTS / HORSE RIDING ] " Manuscript Discourse on Horses, Their Evils and Way of Learning to Ride " [late 17th and early 18th century]

"Manuscript Discourse on Horses, Their Evils and How to Learn to Ride"

Wonderful illustrated manuscript entitled “Discourse on horses, their evils and how to learn to ride”.

English: Although there are no references to the author and the date, we can date the precious manuscript between the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century. Comparing the incipit on page 5 "1 Everyone knows that all things in this world were created for the convenience and service of man..." we can understand how the text is taken from Mascalcia Toscana, a fundamental work by Vincenzo Ferri. It is not clear whether this work was actually completed since there is a jump on page 144 preceding the index (which does not end) and in relation to Ferri's work there are some variations and the compilation of the index itself stops on page 115 with a different spelling and presumably added at a later time. The text contains all the breeds and differences of known horses, the list of cures for all the ailments that can afflict equines and finally the various styles of riding, divided and numbered. What makes the manuscript truly special is the presence of a second part, written by the same hand, which includes all the brands of the main European horse breeds, focusing especially on Italian ones, such as the horses of Emperor Ferdinand of the House of Austria or Bohemia, of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, of the King of Naples and hundreds of others.

In fact, 834 finely decorated marks are collected in 139 pages, described in great detail, making the manuscript unique.

The manuscript, written in clear handwriting in oblong format and bound in half parchment, is composed as follows: 153 manuscript pages in the first part and 139 manuscript pages in the second part. Partial waterlogging that does not compromise consultation; extremely rare.