ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT 18TH CENTURY WORKS ON HORSEMANSHIP
SAUNIER, JEAN DE & GASPARD DE.
La parfaite connoissance des chevaux, leur anatomie, leurs bonnes & mauvaises qualitez, leurs maladies & les remedes qui y conviennent.
Glogau, Frederic Günther, 1765.
Folio (376 x 265 mm). In contemporary (original?) marbled paper covered boards. Wear to extrmities, spine-ends chipped. Outer margin of back board brushed with dark paint, also affecting outer edge of book block. Outer margin of plate 46 chipped. Internally nice and clean, plates uncut. (8), 256, (8) pp. + frontispiece and 61 copper-engraved plates by and after François Morellon La Cave, François van Bleyswyck, and Ernst Ludwig.
Interesting variant, possibly a title-issue of the first edition not recorded in any of the major bibliographies, of Saunier’s famous and richy illustrated work on equine anatomy. The present copy corresponds to the first edition (La Haye, 1734) but has “Glogau, Frederic Günther, 1765” listed as printer and year. The first German translation was published in Glogau in 1765, but this present copy predates it by two years and is in French. Gaspard de Saunier (1663 - 1748) gained recognition after establishing his equestrian academy in Leiden in 1707. Prior to this, he served as equerry to notable nobles in France and trained at the French royal stables alongside his father, Jean de Saunier, 'inspecteur de la grande écurie du roi', who Gaspard credits as the original author of the text. Graesse, Brunet and Nissen list the first edition from 1734. No copies of the particular edition on OCLC.
The present work quickly became one of the most important 18th century works on horses, not only because of the beautiful and detailed depictions of the anatomy of horses, but also because of the actual usefulness for equestrians.
Agassiz, p. 245 (First German edition).
Order-nr.: 60908
DKK 28.000,00