Thursday, May 16, 2013

L'instruction du roy en l'exercice de monter à cheval via Gallica




Salve,
I have been browsing daily through the French Gallica Bibliotheque Numerique and yesterday I came across the famous equestrian work:

  L'instruction du roy en l'exercice de monter à cheval .. etc. written by the famous ecuyer Antoine de Pluvinel (1552-1620),  disciple of the Italian equestrian schools of the XVI century, for the king of France 

Book (1666 edition) can be viewed in its entirety on the Bibliotheque site (I linked the title above) - with the great illustrations by the Duch artist Crispin de Passe (circa 564-1637).  Here, de Passe plate showing another famous cavalier and military commander of the XVII century,  Ambrosio Spinola Doria, the victor at Breda, known via the famous painting  by Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez


Above the greeting there is one of the illustrations from the book, also from the Bibliotheque, showing the master ecuyer and his pupil, Louis XIII.
Below, a painting showing the very king, and his famous minister le Cardinal Richelieu, from wiki.


I have a facsimile of the 1625 edition, in English translation from 1989.

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