| Horsemanship played a vital role in the political culture of early modern Europe. The horse represented power---pragmatically, through its role as an instrument of war and hence of statecraft, and metaphorically, in the elemental dominion of rider over mount. This dissertation explores the ways in which mastery of the animal could be used in the strategic assertion, and redefinition, of rank in a period of profound social and political change. It focuses on the stylized courtly horsemanship of the period, as explicated and promoted through the medium of the treatise, and on the pivotal figure of the riding master/author.;The study argues that symbolic exploitation of the horse should be seen in dynamic rather than static terms, as a semiotically complex, opportunistic and at times unpredictable phenomenon. While stereotypically associated with power, the horse as symbol actually references three distinct discourses within Western tradition: that of dominance, that of discipline and disorder, and that of service. Taken in combination, these thematic strands could reinforce, nuance, or even subvert hegemonic status claims. Such associations, moreover, were readily available for appropriation and manipulation. Finally, the use of horsemanship as a symbolic vehicle raises an essential question: what happens when signification is centered in a living creature? How do the symbolic and the actual interact?;These questions are explored in broad historical terms in chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 1, organized chronologically, examines diverse aspects of the horse in the Middle Ages, with particular attention to the dynamic interaction of the practical and the symbolic. Chapter 2 focuses on the horse within the princely culture of the Italian Renaissance, where it variously appears as a bearer of identity, a vehicle of rhetorical expression, and an instrument of self-representation. The symbolic and practical elements thus introduced are encountered in context in chapters 3 through 5, which feature a comparative analysis of selected early modern Italian, French and English equestrian treatises. Of particular concern are the author's strategies of self-authorization, his envisioned audience and use of the medium of print; and the interplay of symbolic construct and empiricism in his prescriptions as horse master. |
