by Colleen Yarger, George L. Ohrstrom, Jr. Curator of Library Collections
It gives me great delight to dedicate this blog to a new addition to the F. Ambrose Clark Rare Book Room: Michael Baret's 1618 text, An Hipponomie, or, the Vineyard of Horsemanship: Divided into Three Bookes. [1]
Michael Baret, An Hipponomie, or, the Vineyard of Horsemanship..., (London: George Eld, 1618).
Baret's text is exceedingly rare—it is a first and only edition. Fewer than ten copies (including the NSLM's) can be found in public North American collections. [2]
To add to the book's exclusivity, it is one of a smattering of original early works on horsemanship that is not a translation and from the outset, produced with the intention of being in English. Most horsemanship texts at the time were written in Italian—truly beginning with Grisone's Gli ordini di cavalcare from 1550—French, and other continental languages.
Precious little is known about author Michael Baret, and what is known comes straight out of the pages of An Hipponomie .
Detail from Michael Baret, An Hipponomie, or, the Vineyard of Horsemanship..., (London: George Eld, 1618).
On the title page, Baret styles himself as a "Practitioner" and "Professor" of the art of horsemanship. This statement begs the following questions: Where did Baret practice? And what are his credentials? He mostly answers this.
In the book's "Preface to the Reader," Baret acknowledges that he has spent most of his life in Holland, Lincolnshire—an area, in the early 17th century—not especially renowned for its equestrian pursuits.
As for his credentials our writer admits, "true it is I was never trained up under any particular Horseman: but yet my desire was continually, to converse with the best…" [3]
Sprinkled across the text are the names of notable authors on the subject, including: Nicholas Morgan, who published The Perfection of Horsemanship (1609); and prolific writer Gervase Markham, who published A Discourse on Horsemanship (1593). [4]
Detail from Michael Baret, An Hipponomie, or, the Vineyard of Horsemanship..., (London: George Eld, 1618).
Baret admits that even though he had access to some of the greatest minds and texts on the topic, he learned the most from practical experience as a life-long lover of horses.
The results of Baret's quest for satisfying horsemanship knowledge can be found within the over 400 pages of An Hipponomie.
Baret did his best to make his tome well-organized dividing his accumulated knowledge into three separate sections:
- The Theorick Part, intreating of the inward Knowledge of the Man.
- The first Practicke Part, shewing how to worke according to that Knowledge.
- The second Practicke Part, declaring how to apply both hunting and running Horses to the true grounds of the Art.
Detail from Michael Baret, An Hipponomie, or, the Vineyard of Horsemanship..., (London: George Eld, 1618).
Once one realizes that the Table of Contents for each of these three "Parts" is located at the end of the preceding "Part," the entire volume becomes easily navigable.
Baret's subheadings are incredibly descriptive, allowing readers to hone in upon certain content. Some of my favorite subsection titles are: "That a horseman should not be feirce [sic] nor angry," "Of a young Colts first bridling and sadling [sic]," "How to chuse [sic] a hunting horse," "The order of a good stable," How to cloath [sic] a running horse."
From Baret's text, 21st -century readers can appreciate and empathize with the concerns and questions horse owners faced at the beginning of the 17th century. If you want to know more about horsemanship in England during the reign of King James I, An Hipponomie is worth a read!
Thanks to the generosity of Mary and Don Shockey, the NSLM has digitized our copy making it available, for free, to users around the globe. To read An Hipponomie online click here.
Detail from Michael Baret, An Hipponomie, or, the Vineyard of Horsemanship..., (London: George Eld, 1618).
Notes:
[1] – Michael Baret, An Hipponomie, or, the Vineyard of Horsemanship (London: George Eld, 1618); vine·yard (noun) – (1) A tract of land where grapes are grown. (2) A sphere of endeavor or activity.
[2] – This information was gathered using WorldCat.org
[3] – This quotation may be found on the fifth page of first book's "The Preface to the Reader," the entire section is not paginated.
[4] – Mention to N. Morgan may be found on the sixth page of first book's "The Preface to the Reader," the entire section is not paginated. Repeated mentions to G. Markham comes throughout the pages in the Practicke Parts.
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