Jacques de Solleysel - Le Parfait Maréchal - 1754-1754

SOLLEYSEL (sieur du Clapier, Jacques de), Le Parfait Maréchal, which teaches how to discern the Beauty, the Goodness and the Faults of Horses, the signs and causes of diseases; the means of preventing them; their cure, the good or bad use of Purging & Bleeding. The manner of keeping them on journeys, of nourishing them, and of dressing them according to order. The farriery on the designs of the irons, which will restore bad feet, and preserve the good. Together, a treatise on the Stud Farm to rear beautiful and good Foals, and the Precepts for properly fitting Horses; with the necessary Figures.

In Paris, at Didot - Nyon - Damonneville - Savoye, 1754, 2 parts in 1 volume, in-4 (21 x 27 cm), 2 leaves - 512 pp. - 5 leaves (table), 406 pp. - 1 leaf, full calf (some wear to one headcap and to the corners and a crack at the top of a stud on 3 cm), smooth spine richly ornamented with small irons, green silk bookmark, marbled edges. (Period binding.)

Fine edition of this great classic, work of the famous French horseman and hippiatrist Jacques de Solleysel (1617-1680). He founded a School in Forez, his native country, which was soon frequented by young gentlemen of the neighborhood, then contributed to the formation of the Academy that Bernardi, his pupil, founded in Paris. "Solleysel was a learned man, of distinguished mind and agreeable manners... He was a good musician and had a certain talent for painting and drawing. It is he, moreover, who drew and signed the pretty frontispiece of his Parfait Maréchal. He is probably also the author of the plates and figures that adorn this work" (Menessier de la Lance, II, p. 524). Our copy is indeed complete with the abrégé de l'Art de Monter à Cheval, which does not appear in all editions and which is the work of an anonymous horseman. Richly enriched with 3 headpieces and lamps, a frontispiece, 2 folding plates, one for the exterior and one for the various diseases, 3 figures of irons, 17 figures of bit canons and 8 figures of branches. Ownership inscription in brown ink on the verso of the first blank leaf and apart from the small defects noted to the binding, a fine copy. Cf. Menessier de la Lance, II, p. 527