Elizabeth M. Tobey will present a lecture and book signing at the Middleburg Public Library on September 18 at 7:30 p.m. Tobey will discuss her (and Dr. Federica Deigan’s)  translation of Federico Grisone’s The Rules of Riding (Gli ordini di cavalcare).

Tobey began the translation project seven years ago while a John H. Daniels Fellow at the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg. The translation is based upon the First Edition of Grisone’s text published in 1550 and is the first English translation of this exceedingly rare text since 1560, when Thomas Blundeville translated it for Sir Robert Dudley, Queen Elizabeth I’s Master of the Horse.

“Grisone’s treatise and the riding masters trained at his riding academy in Naples, Italy, spread the practice of the art of manège riding to courts throughout Europe,” explains Tobey. “Twenty-three Italian editions of the text were published between 1550 and 1620 and the treatise was translated into French, English, German, Spanish, and Portuguese.

“Many of the concepts Grisone discusses in his treatise—such as developing contact between horse and rider and collection in the horse—are still major tenets of modern dressage riding. The haute école or High School movements of classical dressage are still practiced today by such traditional academies as the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria and the Cadre Noir in Saumur, France.”

Tobey’s lecture will discuss Grisone’s influence on the history of horsemanship and the role of horsemanship in Renaissance Europe. Videos of classical dressage at the Spanish Riding School and other classical schools will be shown.

The Tobey and Deigan translation was published last May by the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Arizona State University. A few copies will be available for sale at a publishers’ discount of $60.00 for cash or check sales only.

Posted September 1, 2014