Description
Book SynopsisThis volume fills an important gap in the analysis of early modern history and culture by reintroducing scholars to the significance of the horse. Each essay in the collection provides a snapshot of how horse culture and the broader culture - that tapestry of images, objects, structures, sounds, gestures, texts, and ideas - articulate.
Table of ContentsIntroduction PART I: POWER AND STATUS Cultural Convergence: The Equine Connection between Muscovy and Europe; A.Kleimola The Palio Horse in Renaissance and Early Modern Italy; E.Tobey Shakespeare and the Social Devaluation of the Horse; B.Boehrer "Faith, Say a Man Should Steal Ye-And Feed Ye Fatter": Equine Hunger and Theft in Woodstock; K.de Ornellas PART II: DISCIPLINE AND CONTROL Just a Bit of Control: The Historical Significance of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth- Century German Bit Books; P.Cuneo Man and Horse in Harmony; E.Le Guin From Gens d'armes to Gentilshommes: Dressage, Civilité, and Ballet à Cheval; K.van Orden PART III: IDENTITY AND SELF-DEFINITION A Horse of a Different Color: Nation and Race in Early Modern Horsemanship Treatises; K.Raber Honest English Breed:" The Thoroughbred as Cultural Metaphor; R.Nash Early Modern French Noble Identity and the Equestrian "Airs Above the Ground"; T.J.Tucker "Horses! Give me More Horses!": White Settler Identity, Horses and the Making of Early Modern South Africa, 1655-1700; S.Swart Learning to Ride in Early Modern Britain, or, The Making of the English Hunting Seat; D.Landry