1124 - Riding manual, probably after Grisone, double leaf, rider and volta, probably Augsburg, 16th century

Riding manual, probably after Grisone, double leaf, rider and volta, probably Augsburg, 16th century Woodcut on paper, unsigned, double leaf from the German adaptation of the riding manual of Federico Grisone, probably Johann Fayser, "Künstlicher Bericht", Augsburg, probably 2nd half of the 16th century, from "Das dritt Buch", pages 75/76 and 81/82, with two riding school illustrations, 1) on the page "Vom Redopiren" a rider with plumed beret, beard, puffed sleeves and fluttering sash, a long switch in his right hand, on a horse rearing on its hindquarters to the right, above a ground strip with water lines, 2) full-page arena figure of the volta formed by two circles connected by a double line, at the lower right of the figure a mounted rider with plumed beret, faint reddish and greenish tones on rider and horse as remains of old colouring, the text pages in Fraktur with marginalia, decorative initials and the chapter headings "Das ander Capitel" and "Das vierdt Capitel", gathering signature "G ij" at the bottom, good condition commensurate with age, slightly stained, image 26.5x17 cm (HxW) for the full-page arena figure, overall 29x19.5 cm (HxW). Federico Grisone, a Neapolitan nobleman, founded a riding academy in Naples in 1532 and in 1550 published "Gli ordini di cavalcare", the first modern riding manual in Europe, which appeared in 21 Italian editions up to 1623 and was translated into French, German, Spanish and English. His harsh training methods with severe use of the spur were only superseded by later riding masters such as Antoine de Pluvinel with a gentler schooling. In 1570 Johann Fayser the Younger of Arnstein published with Georg Willer in Augsburg, under the title "Hippokomike. Künstlicher Bericht vnd allerzierlichste Beschreybung", a German adaptation newly divided into six books, which was reprinted several times into the early 17th century and whose numerous woodcuts were long attributed to Jost Amman. The arena figures of the voltas accompany the text as full-page diagrams, to which the rider is expressly referred in the text.