Horse

Alla metà del Cinquecento, Federico Grisone, gentiluomo napoletano dava per la prima volta alle stampe un libro sull’arte di ammaestrare il cavallo «per l’uso della guerra» e sui segreti per «emendarne i vitii». L’opera ebbe subito un enorme successo e fu ben presto emulata dai libri di altri autori. Nasceva così un vero e proprio genere letterario, quello del trattato equestre, la cui tradizione, tra alterne vicende, è giunta viva e vitale sino ai nostri giorni. Non è un caso che quell’opera fosse stampata in Italia, visto che nel nostro paese tra XV e XVI secolo venne elaborata una nuova cultura di corte in cui l’equitazione aveva un ruolo fondamentale. All’epoca, i cavallerizzi italiani erano contesi dalle corti di tutta Europa e i rampolli dell’aristocrazia di tutto il continente valicavano le Alpi per perfezionarsi nell’arte di montare a cavallo presso celebri maestri. Seguendo il filo rosso della trattatistica equestre, questo libro ripercorre la storia dell’equitazione italiana ed europea, raccontandone le ricche implicazioni culturali, l’evoluzione delle tecniche e i numerosi intrecci con i grandi avvenimenti della storia europea. Una vicenda costellata di personaggi circondati da un’aura di leggendaria abilità, di dispute tra scuole contrapposte e di imprese memorabili. Una storia che dal Cinquecento si dipana sino agli inizi del XX secolo, quando di nuovo un italiano, Federico Caprilli, rivoluzionò l’equitazione mondiale, ideando la tecnica di salto degli ostacoli tutt’oggi in uso.
http://worksofchivalry.com/it/il-libro/

In the eighteenth century a growing interest in the British institutions and culture spread throughout Europe. This trend also involved the equestrian field. “English equitation” became fashionable and the interest in horse racing and country riding raised. A phenomenon, which testifies, once again, the close connection between politics, fashion and horse riding and whose consequences are still evident today. The “English equestrian fashion” ignited lively debates. Practitioners and horse lovers were divided between enthusiasts and absolute opponents. We find an interesting testimony of this controversy in a book of an Italian rider and writer of the Eighteenth century: Federico Mazzucchelli.

A partire dal Settecento, in Europa si diffuse un crescente interesse per le istituzioni e la cultura inglesi e questa tendenza coinvolse anche il campo equestre. L’equitazione “all’inglese” divenne di gran moda e crebbe la passione per l’ippica e l’equitazione di campagna. Un fenomeno che testimonia, una volta di più, lo stretto legame tra politica, moda ed equitazione e le cui conseguenze sono evidenti ancora oggi. Questa tendenza non mancò di suscitare suscitò un vivace dibattito che divise praticanti e appassionati tra entusiasti e assolutamente contrari. Troviamo un’interessante testimonianza diretta di questa controversia nell’opera di un cavaliere e scrittore italiano del Settecento: Federico Mazzucchelli.

New interesting and unknown details of Cesare Fiaschi’s biography emerge from the study of some ancient sources, which illu-minate, with a new light, one of the most in-teresting figures of the Renaissance eques-trian culture and disprove many legends and inaccuracies handed down to us about him.

Nuovi dettagli interessanti e sinora scono-sciuti della biografia di Cesare Fiaschi emergono dallo studio di alcune fonti anti-che, che illuminano di una nuova luce una delle figure più interessanti della cultura equestre del Rinascimento e confutano mol-te leggende e inesattezze tramandate sul suo conto.

""En Filipo II y el Arte de la Guerra tendremos la oportunidad de conocer en profundidad a uno de los más grandes reyes de la antigua Macedonia. Gracias a su habilidad como estratega, diplomático, político y soldado, heredó un reino pobre, débil y acosado por innumerables enemigos y lo transformó en el más poderoso de toda Grecia.

A lo largo de sus páginas podremos conocer la historia del reino Macedonio, desde sus orígenes míticos hasta la formación de un imperio, de la mano del que, a la postre, se convertiría en el padre del mítico Alejandro Magno y en el forjador de un nuevo ejército que cambiaria el devenir de la guerra en la Antigüedad. Filipo II fue el creador de la falange macedonia, formación que se demostraría como inigualable en el campo de batalla y que reportaría incontables victorias sobre poderosos enemigos, como los ilirios, los tesalios, los tracios, los beocios o los atenienses. Pero no sólo eso, logró integrar en el campo de batalla a la infantería y a la caballería para emplearlos en nuevas formaciones tácticas: armó a sus soldados con las míticas sarissas y apreció como pocos las posibilidades militares que la maquinaria de guerra podía proporcionarle, siendo el mecenas de numerosos avances en este campo. Soñó con conquistar el Imperio persa, cuando ya había logrado lo que nadie antes fue capaz: el control de Grecia.

Sólo la muerte le arrebató esa hazaña, pero sentó las bases de lo que más tarde conseguiría su propio hijo. Su figura levantó tanto odios como pasiones; se le conocía como mujeriego y bebedor, pero también por su habilidad para la oratoria, por sus astucia, determinación y valor. Siempre luchó en primera línea junto a sus soldados y nunca permitió que éstos le llamaran rey, sino solo "General".

I wrote this article for the 2012 Oxford Companion to Archaeology, updating very considerably my contribution to the 1996 edition. Substantial changes were needed in order to take into consideration research carried out in the intervening years. Oxford University Press would not permit me to upload the pdf they sent me, so I have instead attached here a text file that I have converted into a pdf. There may be some small differences between the two versions of this article.

"Ces Actes des Journées d’étude internationales (Strasbourg, 6-7 novembre 2009) sont l’aboutissement d’un programme de recherche (2007-2009), mené au sein de l’UMR 7044 (Étude des civilisations de l’Antiquité : de la Préhistoire à Byzance), sur la place du cheval dans l’empire byzantin. Les 14 contributions qu’ils réunissent sont consacrées au cheval de guerre et de loisir dans l’Antiquité et au Moyen Âge.

L’ouvrage est divisé en trois sections. Dans la première, les contributeurs analysent la naissance du corps de cavalerie dans l’armée romaine et ses emplois. Sont également étudiés les différences régionales du pourtour méditerranéen dans l’élevage du cheval, les prix pratiqués ou encore les connaissances hippologiques des Anciens. Les travaux qui composent la deuxième partie proposent des synthèses sur le cheval médiéval, byzantin et occidental. Ils abordent le sujet à travers les textes, les sources archéologiques, les représentations et les us et coutumes des civilisations étudiées. Enfin, la dernière partie s’intéresse aux instruments hippiques, aux armes et à l’hippiatrie. Y sont ainsi réexaminées les innovations, adoptions et adaptations, dans l’Antiquité tardive, des pièces de l’équipement équin essentielles pour le combat, telles que l’étrier et le mors. Les armes des cavaliers sont réévaluées, ainsi que les changements dans leurs techniques de combat suite à la diffusion de l’étrier. On trouvera aussi l’analyse du vocabulaire employé pour l’anatomie du cheval dans la littérature hippiatrique grecque, qui connaît à cette période un essor sans précédent, lié au développement de la cavalerie romaine et protobyzantine."

Love as a feeling of total gift of yourself to the other and of the other to yourself, with the tremendous responsibility that goes along with it. And death then becomes an unacceptable step away from this reality.
Death comes and love will never go away and will turn into suffering, longing, wanting, needing and never getting the satisfaction you could ever wish to get. Love is for life I was going to say, oh yes, love is for life and even beyond life, for death if it comes and when it comes.
Love never turns into ashes and never goes back to dirt because it is not dirt, it is the soul of the heart and the mind of life.
And that’s what C.S. Lewis actually discovers late in his life and never forgot after that. He finally learned how to be a fully blooming man, but it hurts so much when you learn love from within the death of your beloved.
I must say the slow rhythm of the film, the very intimate scenes, the delicacy of the language and the acting, and the art of Anthony Hopkins serve that theme so well, so beautifully.
It seems to be able to last for ever and ever, and yet the young son, now step-son, is there to remind you the show of life goes on for ever and ever on the stage of the strutting human beings we are.

Documento guía de las pláticas que he ofrecido en el Seminario Infancias (Facultad de Historia) y a integrantes del Consejo Ciudadano de Morelia en junio de 2016. Planteo en siete páginas con vínculos a documentos qué ha sido del jaripeo en la matriz de la economía de la furia y por qué es importante comprometerse en una estrategia no prohibicionista ni punitiva (que es la que de manera más inmediata se le suele ocurrir a la gente indignada y a la gente en política).

Mycenae culture became due to its own merits, the most important one in continental Greece for more than four centuries all along the II Millennium B.C. Its commercial importance due to the fact they took advantage of the minoans exchange routes and their own economic interests made them reach far regions even in Central Mediterranean and the Near East. But all of that must’ve been difficult if they hadn’t encountered a powerful army who support their colonial and commercial adventures. Numerous Lineal B writings, pictorial and archaeological remains are witness to the importance the military world provides to those former Mycenaean. Therefore, in this article we will try to show the diverse aspects related to the Mycenaean army who supported its power in continental Greece in spite of this, neither the reforms taken in 13th century B.C. got that mycenaeans culture survival, when their settlements were destroyed.

This book surveys the practice of horse racing from antiquity to the modern period, and in this way offers a selective global history.

Unlike previous histories of horse racing, which generally make claims about the exclusiveness of modern sport and therefore diminish the importance of premodern physical contests, the contributors to this book approach racing as a deep history of diachronically comparable practices, discourses, and perceptions centered around the competitive staging of equine speed. In order to compare horse racing cultures from completely different epochs and regions, the authors respond to a series of core issues which serve as structural comparative parameters. These key issues include the spatial and architectural framework of races; their organization; victory prizes; symbolic representations of victories and victors; and the social range and identities of the participants. The evidence of these competitions is interpreted in its distinct historical contexts and with regard to specific cultural conditions that shaped the respective relationship between owners, riders, and horses on the global racetracks of pre-modernity and modernity.

Reviews: Anthrozoös (J. Houston); Humanimalia 31.2 (C. Willekes).

The Fund Osuna of the Biblioteca Nacional de España in Madrid holds the manuscript of an unpublished and hitherto unknown work by Federico Grisone, the famous author of the "Ordini di cavalcare" (Orders of Riding, 1550), the first equestrian treatise ever printed. This work, entitled "Razze del Regno" (Breeds of the Kingdom), lists those, who in the opinion of the author, were the best breeding farms in the south of Italy during the sixteenth century and offers some guidelines for choosing the foals, the management of the stables, and the feeding of horses.

Nous tenterons dans cette étude de montrer dans quelles conditions, par quels moyens les japonais ont développé lʼéquipement du cheval utilisé pour la monte, voir dans quelle mesure cet équipement du cheval est différent ou similaire aux usages à la fois sur le continent asiatique, mais aussi parfois en Europe pour les mêmes périodes.

Ludovico Ariosto è, l’autore che meglio di chiunque altro prima e dopo di lui, è riuscito a sintetizzare in un’opera letteraria l’ideale cavalleresco che permeava la sua epoca. Un ideale che ha profondamente influenzato tutta la società europea, in quanto modello di prestigio sociale, fasto e autorità e che trovava espressione nelle manifestazioni pubbliche, come giostre e cavalcate, nelle quali l’aristocrazia metteva in scena la rappresentazione simbolica del proprio primato sociale. Partendo da alcuni esempi storici, come la giostra per celebrare le nozze di Ludovico il Moro e Beatrice d’Este a Milano, o quella per il carnevale di Ferrara del 1561, si mostra come l’immaginario cavalleresco caratterizzasse la società rinascimentale. Si evidenzia poi l’importanza della cultura equestre nell'Orlando furioso, approfondendo la figura del cavallo Baiardo.

At, Türk yaşam tarzının önemli bir ögesi olmuştur. En eski Türk
yazıtlarından günümüze kadar at etrafında geniş bir söz varlığı meydana geldiği görülmektedir. 6000 yıl öncesinde evcilleştirildiği düşünülen at, hem sütünden hem de etinden yararlanılan bir gıda kaynağı, hem de taşımacılıkta ve savaşta kullanılan bir araçtır. Afanesyevo kültüründen çıkan buluntular bölgede yaşayan Türklerin atve deveyi evcilleştirdiğini göstermektedir. MÖ 2700-1700 yılları arasında etkisi
görülen kültür alanından at gemleri bulunmuştur. Avrasya’nın çeşitli yerlerinde
yapılan arkeolojik kazılarda at ile gömülen savaşçı mezarlarına rastlanmaktadır.Eski Türk kültüründe at etrafında çok sayıda sözcük kullanılmıştır. Atın rengi, cinsi,giysisi, at ile kullanılan araç ve gereçler ayrı ayrı sözcüklerle karşılıklarını bulmuştur. Bu yazıda Türkiye Türkçesinde kısrak diye adlandırdığımız atın dişisi için kullanılan sözcüklerin Türk lehçe, şive ağızlarındaki görünümleri üzerinde durulacaktır

The story of a great equestrian feast held in Rome during the Carnival of 1634, offers us an opportunity to discover the original rules (currently unrecognized) of the Saracen Joust and to reconstruct the interesting dramaturgy of this kind of equestrian festival in the Baroque period.

Una grande festa equestre tenutasi a Roma, IN Piazza Navona, durante il Carnevale del 1634, ci offre lo spunto per scoprire le regole originali (oggi misconosciute) della Giostra del Saracino e ricostruire l'interessantissima drammaturgia di questo genere di feste equestri in epoca barocca.

Lisans öğrenciliği yıllarımda yazdığım bu makaleyi; şu anda değerlendirdiğimde birçok hatalı bilgi ve görüşüm olduğunu görmekteyim. Makaleme ulaşan değerli öğrenci ve araştırmacıların da; bu görüşümü göz önünde bulundurarak kendisini bir kaynak olarak görmemeleri konusunda uyarma gerekliliğine inanıyorum. İlginize teşekkür ediyorum. (29.01.2016)

The horse has a twofold nature, docile and at the same time wild, which has always attracted but also frightened man. Not surprisingly, a large part of one of the first treatises dedicated to horseback riding, the Livro da Ensinança de Bem Cavalgar Toda Sela - written by King Edward I of Portugal, known as Dom Duarte, around the mid-fifteenth century - is dedicated just to the management of the fear that the horse inspires in his rider. From this point of view, learning the equestrian art presupposes above all an inner discipline which, if properly cultivated, can become a genuine spiritual experience.

L’Athénien Xénophon (environ 428 – environ 355 avant Jésus-Christ) est l’auteur d’une œuvre considérable. Outre les Helléniques, qui raconte l’histoire du monde grec dans la première moitié du IVe siècle, ou bien les Mémorables, qui rapportent les enseignements de Socrate, il est connu pour avoir écrit l’un des premiers traités équestres du monde occidental. Ce cavalier athénien, qui a parcouru les vastes espaces de l’Empire perse lors de l’expédition des Dix Mille, et qui a combattu auprès des Spartiates tout en ayant renié quelque temps sa cité d’origine, a acquis une solide expérience équestre qu’il a voulu, par souci didactique, fixer par écrit. Outre l’Art équestre, qui donne des conseils que l’on peut suivre encore aujourd’hui, il a rédigé un traité destiné à un commandant de la cavalerie (l’Hipparque), dans lequel il conseille d’utiliser souvent la ruse dans les combats. Ce sont donc deux traités inestimables, ici mis en valeur par la belle traduction de l’helléniste Paul-Louis Courier (1772-1825).

Referential communication occurs when a sender elaborates its gestures to direct the attention of a recipient to its role in pursuit of the desired goal, e.g. by pointing or showing an object, thereby informing the recipient what it wants. If the gesture is successful, the sender and the recipient focus their attention simultaneously on a third entity, the target. Here we investigated the ability of domestic horses (Equus caballus) to communicate referentially with a human observer about the location of a desired target, a bucket of food out of reach. In order to test six operational criteria of referential communication, we manipulated the recipient’s (experimenter) attentional state in four experimental conditions: frontally oriented, backward oriented, walking away from the arena and frontally oriented with other helpers present in the arena. The rate of gaze alternation was higher in the frontally oriented condition than in all the others. The horses appeared to use both indicative (pointing) and non-indicative (nods and shakes) head gestures in the relevant test conditions. Horses also elaborated their communication by switching from a visual to a tactile signal and demonstrated perseverance in their communication. The results of the tests revealed that horses used referential gestures to manipulate the attention of a human recipient so to obtain an unreachable resource. These are the first such findings in an ungulate species.

Peculiar burials of the medieval period were investigated during the archaeological excavations of barrow 2 from Sovruno-1 barrow burial mound in the territory of the Ipatovsky District of Stavropol Krai. A total of two burials encircled by ditches were investigated in the barrow. Burial 1 dates back to the Golden Horde period. Burial 2 is dated the Khazar period. These burials are located in the area of winter pastures, traditional for the Middle Ages. These are new burials of horsemen corresponding to the Khazar and Golden Horde periods located in the territory of the Central Ciscaucasia and Southern Russian steppes.

Along the history of Sassanid’s Empire many landmarks marked its turns. But the most important internal issues the kings Shapur I and Khosrau II had to go through were the political, military, social and administrative reforms that they had to imposse to ensure the empire and their power.

The statues of Mastino II and Cangrande della Scala, in the Civi Museum of Castlevecchio in Verona, allow us to observe in detail the seat and the equipment of a medieval knight. We thus find explicitly displayed the two different styles of the so-called riding “a la brida”, described in the subsequent treatise by the king of Portugal, Dom Duarte, Livro da ensinança de bem cavalgar toda sela (fifteenth cent.)

Le statue di Mastino II e Cangrande della Scala, provenienti dalle cosiddette Arche Scaligere  e conservate nel Museo Civico di Castelvecchio a Verona, ci permettono di osservare nei dettagli l’assetto e l’equipaggiamento di un cavaliere medievale. Vi troviamo esplicitamente rappresentati i due stili differenti della cosiddetta equitazione “a la brida”, descritti nel successivo trattato del re del Portogallo, Livro da ensinança de bem cavalgar toda sela (XV secolo).

Tras la caída del Imperio parto a manos de Ardešīr, el nacimiento de la nueva Persia sasánida llevo aparejada la aparición de un nuevo poder en Oriente Próximo que sustentaría su cohesión y expansión en la fuerza militar. A lo largo de su historia los sasánidas no solo tuvieron que hacer frente a numerosos problemas internos, sino que debieron desarrollar su estrategia militar, heredera de la tradición parta, para poder enfrentarse con garantías a poderosos enemigos como el Imperio romano-bizantino, los hunos, los heftalitas o los turcos goks. Finalmente, un imperio desgastado por los constantes enfrentamientos no podría resistir al empuje de los árabes musulmanes tras cuatro siglos de historia.

It is not very well known that Vittorio Alfieri (1749-1803), one of the greatest Italian poets of the eighteenth century, had a deep love for horses and horseback riding. His autobiography reveals him as a very ironic and adventurous character and it is scattered with very interesting anecdotes of equestrian topic. In this article, we trace his beginnings in the equestrian field, his first deeds (both in the equestrian field and in society) in England and the purchase of two magnificent Andalusian horses during a trip to Spain. We then discover that, if he had to choose a profession, the poet would have chosen to be a horse tamer, and the story of his journey from England to Italy, crossing the Alps with a herd of fourteen specimens.

A non molti è noto che Vittorio Alfieri (1749-1803), uno dei maggiori poeti italiani del diciottesimo secolo, fu un grande appassionato di cavalli e d’equitazione. La sua autobiografia ce lo rivela come un personaggio molto più ironico e avventuroso di quanto le nostre reminiscenze scolastiche ci lascino immaginare, ed è disseminata di gustosissimi aneddoti equestri. In questo articolo, si raccontano i suoi esordi in campo equestre, le prime memorabili imprese (equestri e mondane) in Inghilterra e l'acquisto di due splendidi cavalli andalusi durante un viaggio in Spagna. Scopriamo quindi che, se avesse dovuto scegliere un mestiere, il poeta avrebbe voluto fare il domatore di cavalli e si racconta di quando attraversò l'Europa, dall'Inghilterra all'Italia, valicando le Alpi con una mandria di quattordici esemplari.

Das Dissertationsprojekt widmet sich vordergründig der Untersuchung des Verkehrsträgers „Pferd“ und seiner Einbindung in das Gefüge spätmittelalterlicher zwischenstädtischer Kommunikationsformen im Westen des Heiligen Römischen Reiches. Im Interesse steht dabei der Stellenwert des Pferdes als Mobilitätsgarant für die städtische Obrigkeit und deren Dienstangestellte – Gerichtsdiener, Boten und Förster – im Zuge von Gerichtsfahrten, Beschauungen, Fronforderungen, Eskorten, diplomatischer, innen- und außenpolitischer Reisen und bei der Übermittlung von Nachrichten. Die Reichweite und Leistungsfähigkeit des berittenen Botenwesens sind ferner Gegenstand der Abhandlung. Das Ziel ist eine grundlagenschaffende Studie zur Erforschung der primären Konstellationen und Mechanismen, die räumliche Mobilität gewährleisteten, sowie der Technik und Dynamik der Informationsverbreitung innerhalb der Städte und auf den städteverbindenden Verkehrsadern. [...]

ISBN 978-84-941099-7-3

Desde tiempos inmemoriales Asia ha sido la cuna de numerosos imperios pero, de entre todos ellos, llegando a abarcar desde el Pacífico hasta el Mediterráneo y desde Siberia hasta el Índico, los mongoles crearon el más extenso y poderoso que ha conocido la Historia. Sería el noble Temujin, del clan Borjigin, quien encabezó dicha hazaña al ostentar por vez primera el título de Gengis Kan o Gran Kan. Unió al, hasta entonces, dividido pueblo mongol y convirtió a sus habitantes, nómadas pastores de las estepas (Lane, 2006: 17), en los guerreros más temidos de la Edad Media. Reinos e imperios cayeron a sus pies, tras vencerlos en incontables batallas, obteniendo los mongoles riquezas sin fin. Gracias a diversos cronistas árabes, chinos, rusos, etc., contamos con un conocimiento relativamente amplio y veraz de su historia, aunque la fuente principal procede de la Historia Secreta de los Mongoles, obra de autor desconocido y compilada quizá alrededor del año 1226, un año antes de la muerte del Gran Kan, que junto a numerosas leyendas recoge la tradición oral de los sucesos que narraremos.

"Una constante, cuando nos referimos a la mitología griega, consiste en que, a menudo, parece que traspasa la realidad, de manera que ambos mundos, el real y el imaginado, se mezclan. En lo que respecta a las amazonas, existían diversos mitos y, dentro de ellos, diversas versiones de cada mito que a lo largo del tiempo fueron generando, en el imaginario colectivo, una visión estereotipada de ellas y de los acontecimientos que las rodearon. En lo que respecta al ámbito económico, el comercio griego no solo abarcó todo el Mediterráneo sino que a través de él los griegos se pusieron en contacto con culturas tan alejadas de su órbita como los iberos o los escitas.

En este sentido, y a tenor de los recientes descubrimientos de numerosas tumbas de mujeres guerreras entre los escitas, sármatas, saurómatas, etc. que habitaron en las estepas rusas situadas al norte del Mar Negro, pretendo establecer una relación entre estas y la gran cantidad de piezas cerámicas que con representaciones de amazonas se han localizado en las colonias griegas situadas en las estribaciones de la costa norte del Mar Negro. Sobre ellas, hay que destacar que esta zona se ha conformado como la tercera región (tras Etruria y la propia ciudad de Atenas) en que se han localizado un mayor número de estas piezas (tras un análisis que he realizado sobre cerca de 1700 piezas cerámicas en todo el Mediterráneo). De forma que podría ser posible intentar trazar algún tipo de relación entre los motivos que estas piezas presentaban y la cercanía de dichos asentamientos a culturas como las mencionadas donde la capacidad bélica de la mujer parece haber sido importante y que quizá podría tener conexión con los tradicionales mitos sobre las amazonas.
"