NEWCASTLE, William Cavendish, Duke of (1592-1676) and Jacques de SOLLEYSEL (1617-1680). Neu-eröffnete Reit-Bahn = Nouvelle méthode pour dresser les chevaux. Nuremberg: Johann Michael Spörlin for Johann Zieger & Georg Lehmann, 1700.

NEWCASTLE, William Cavendish, Duke of (1592-1676) and Jacques de SOLLEYSEL (1617-1680). Neu-eröffnete Reit-Bahn = Nouvelle méthode pour dresser les chevaux. Nuremberg: Johann Michael Spörlin for Johann Zieger & Georg Lehmann, 1700.

The parallel German-French edition of the Duke of Newcastle's standard work on horsemanship. After the royalist defeat at Marston Moor on 2 July 1644, Newcastle, a supporter of Charles I during the English civil war, went into self-imposed exile in Europe. Newcastle established a prestigious riding-school in Antwerp, and in 1658 he published his famous work on horsemanship, La méthode et invention nouvelle de dresser les chevaux. The work covers horse breeding, training and dressage. It influenced one of the greatest French riding masters, François Robichon de La Guérinière (1688-1751), as well as the controversial figure in dressage, François Baucher (1796-1873). Newcastle is also said to be the inventor of draw reins. Lipperheide Tc 31; Mennessier de la Lance II, 250; Nissen ZBI 852.

Folio (324 x 211mm). Printed in two columns, in Roman (for French) and gothic type (for German). Half-title and title pages in German and French, one full-page coat of arms, woodcut diagrams in text, and 82 copper-plate illustrations after Abraham van Diepenbecke, of which 79 double-page and two folding plates are mounted on stubs (some marginal tears, one in a plate, repaired). Contemporary re-used vellum of medieval music over boards (a little rubbed). Provenance: Marstalls-Departement (i.e., the royal stables of the House of Hanover; 18th century red ink stamps on half-title and German title page).