Traité d'équitation
CHF 1,070.00
Sale price
CHF 1,070.00
Regular price
Skip to product information
or ask us a question
or ask us a question
First edition of the only written treatise by a Versailles écuyer, with nine plates
Montfaucon de Rogles, Charles Antoine
Traité d'équitation
Par feu M. de Montfaucon de Rogles, Écuyer ordinaire de la petite Écurie du Roi, commandant l'Équipage de feu Monseigneur le Dauphin
1778, Paris, Imprimerie Royale
First Edition
CHF 1,070.00
Sale price
CHF 1,070.00
Regular price
Overview
In 4to. Pp. [2] f.e., xvi, 198, v, [1], IX folding plates, [2] r.e.
First, posthumous edition of the only treatise written by an écuyer of the royal riding school at Versailles, and the sole contemporary work known to set down its doctrine in writing. In fact, of every écuyer (equerry, or in the past "squire") who ever taught at the royal riding school of Versailles, Montfaucon de Rogles is, by the Institut français du cheval et de l'équitation's own account, the only one known to have set the school's doctrine down in a treatise: everyone else taught by demonstration only. He died before the book reached print, and his brother, a colonel of infantry and écuyer to Madame Adélaïde, wrote the dedication to the king and brought the manuscript into print at the Imprimerie Royale. The nine folding plates, engraved by La Gardette and completing the book, show floor-plans of the manège traced with the fine line of a horse's own path, building to a final plate with a complex choreography. The dedication states plainly that the work distills more than thirty years of the author's reflection and practice, a working life folded into fewer than two hundred pages of prose. The principles set out here, building a horse's training on straightness rather than the lateral flexion La Guérinière had required even in the piaffer and the passage, were carried forward through the École d'Auvergne to Baucher, and, by the École de Cavalerie's own account, into the manual drawn up when the cavalry school was founded at Saumur in 1814.
Inside the book
The treatise is divided into two principal parts, the instruction of the rider, and the instruction of the horse. The first progresses from correct seat and posture and the coordinated use of the aids to the principal movements and exercises of the classical manège, concluding with instruction on jumpers and mounted martial exercises. The second concerns the training of the horse, from elementary work on the longe and under saddle to more advanced schooling, including straightening, work with the bit, passage, work at the pillars, elevated movements, and the development of balance on the haunches. Particular attention is given to correcting physical limitations, resistance, and acquired faults. The work concludes with the training appropriate to horses intended for different military, sporting, and carriage uses, followed by an alphabetical glossary of the principal terminology of classical horsemanship, including the natural gaits and the low and elevated airs. The nine folding plates engraved by La Gardette illustrate manège floor plans for straight work along the wall, passing the corner, doubling, the volte, changes of hand on the haunches and shoulders, the figure-eight, and work at the pillars. The final plate depicts mounted ring-tilting and head-tilting courses, including a lance thrust at the figure called the tête de Méduse and a pistol shot at the tête du More.
Condition
Nineteenth-century black morocco; spine with five raised bands, gilt ruling, and author, title, and date gilt-lettered. Light rubbing to corners and spine edges. Red edges. Marbled pastedowns within a refined gilt-ruled border; small bookseller's label of Libraire Fl. Tulkens, Bruxelles, to the front pastedown. Scattered foxing, most noticeable at the beginning of the volume, with occasional light pencil underlining throughout. Plates complete and clean. Fine.
Dimensions (inches): 10 1/4 x 8 1/4 x 4/5
Why La Fenice likes it
A school that taught through practice rather than books, and finally the one master who decided to write its doctrine down. But he died before it went to print and - suspense! - his brother took care of the manuscript, allowing us to enjoy it centuries later. We especially like the nine folding plates: technical diagrams of the manège in which the horse itself disappears, leaving only its path across the floor; by this we really mean the cute little traces of its hoofprints. They are beautiful (and a little funny) as abstractions, but what gets us is how strangely legible they remain: nearly 250 years later, without being an eighteenth-century écuyer, you can still follow the horse around the room.
About the author
Charles-Antoine de Montfaucon de Rogles (dates disputed: 1717-1760 or 1729-1774), écuyer of the King's Petite Écurie and attached to the Dauphin's household from 1751.
From the Same Shelf