Lot 46B email save

GEISSERT, Johann. Ein Ritterlich und Adelich Kuns

GEISSERT, Johann. Ein Ritterlich und Adelich Kunstbuch: Darinnen von Reiten, Zeumen auch Ross Artzney tem allerley Stangen, Kinnketten, geschlossenen und offenen Mundstiicken, sampt jedes Wirckungen, unterschiedlicher und ausfuhrlicher Bericht begriffen, dergleichen zuvor niemas ausgangen; alien Liebhabern dierser Ritterlichen und Adelichen Kunst, su gefallen verfertiget und in Druck gegeben.

Koburg: Caspar Bertschen, 1615. Folio (412 x 293mm.) 10 text pages and 102 full-page woodcut illustrations of horse bits, one folding. Elaborate title in compartments surrounded by a wood-cut border comprised of five blocks depicting horses, riders and instructors within an architectural setting, with two armorial coats-of-arms. Contemporary full vellum, green edges. Contemporary full-page sketch in ink of a bit tipped to front free endpaper. Condition: upper part of plate LXXXI slightly damp-stained, minor wear to extremities, slight worming to lower board and pastedown. a fine copy of this interesting work on horse bits. OCLC locates a single copy of this beautifully illustrated book, entirely devoted to varieties of bits, with the detailed full-page illustrations accompanied by two lengthy explanations of their uses for different horses. The work is closely akin in style and subject to a number of Renaissance equestrian treatises and is a development of the manuscript and reverse printed German horse bit books of the 16th century.The illustrations are divided into two sections describing bits used in Germany, and those in Spain and Turkey, which reveal an interesting contrast in the design and size of bits preferred by Northern European riders versus those with a marked Arabic influence. The present work is not found in the Paul Mellon Collection of Books on the Horse and Horsemanship.