116 - EISENBERG (Frédéric-Guillaume, Baron d').

EISENBERG (Frédéric-Guillaume, Baron d'). A Description of Modern Riding in Its Perfection, Explained Through Essential Lessons and Illustrated with Precise Diagrams, from the Rider’s Seat to the Halt, Accompanied by Various Bits for Properly Bridling Horses. [London], n.p., 1727. Oblong folio comprising (1) title page with engraved frontispiece, (4) pages (dedication, preface, list of subscribers, table of contents), 59 engraved plates with explanatory text opposite. Marbled calfskin, decorated ribbed spine (unmarked) (later binding). Scuff marks. Very slight traces of faint water stains. Copy likely washed. The text leaves have been carefully pasted to the reverse side of the plates. First edition, highly sought after. Complete set of 59 plates drawn by Baron d’Eisenberg and engraved by Bernard Picart: the first 7 depict bareback horses of various breeds; plates 8 through 55 show horses ridden by riders performing different dressage movements; and the last 4 depict bits. Baron d’Eisenberg, an 18th-century German equestrian, hippologist, and artist, left few details about his life: “The little we know of his life comes from his works.” He spent part of his youth “riding and training horses” at the court of Saxe-Weimar, then entered the service of the Emperor. He served as Grand Equerry to the Count of Daun, Viceroy of Naples, and remained in that city for six years. He then went to Vienna, where he was a student of Mr. de Regenthal, equerry at the imperial riding school, and appears to have attended, in 1711, the coronation of Emperor Charles VI in Frankfurt, as he provides a detailed description of the horse ridden by the sovereign during that ceremony. He later resided in England for several years and published there, in 1727, the first edition of his *Manège Moderne*, which he dedicated to King George II (…). But he then returned to the Emperor’s territories, and in 1753 he was in Tuscany, serving as director and chief equerry of the Academy of Pisa. He was likely still alive in 1764, the year the second edition of *Anti-Maquignonage* was published."" (Mennessier de La Lance I, 437–438.) Ex-libris from the P. Couturier de Royas Library.