This volume fills an important gap in the analysis of early modern history and culture by reintroducing scholars to the significance of the horse. A more complete understanding of the role of horses and horsemanship is absolutely crucial to our understanding of the early modern world. Each essay in the collection provides a snapshot of how horse culture and the broader culture - that tapestry of images, objects, structures, sounds, gestures, texts, and ideas - articulate. Without knowledge of how the horse figured in all these aspects, no version of political, material, or intellectual culture in the period can be entirely accurate.

Introduction PART I: POWER AND STATUS Cultural Convergence: The Equine Connection between Muscovy and Europe; A.Kleimola The Palio Horse in Renaissance and Early Modern Italy; E.Tobey Shakespeare and the Social Devaluation of the Horse; B.Boehrer "Faith, Say a Man Should Steal Ye-And Feed Ye Fatter": Equine Hunger and Theft in Woodstock; K.de Ornellas PART II: DISCIPLINE AND CONTROL Just a Bit of Control: The Historical Significance of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth- Century German Bit Books; P.Cuneo Man and Horse in Harmony; E.Le Guin From Gens d'armes to Gentilshommes: Dressage, Civilité, and Ballet à Cheval; K.van Orden PART III: IDENTITY AND SELF-DEFINITION A Horse of a Different Color: Nation and Race in Early Modern Horsemanship Treatises; K.Raber Honest English Breed:" The Thoroughbred as Cultural Metaphor; R.Nash Early Modern French Noble Identity and the Equestrian "Airs Above the Ground"; T.J.Tucker "Horses! Give me More Horses!": White Settler Identity, Horses and the Making of Early Modern South Africa, 1655-1700; S.Swart Learning to Ride in Early Modern Britain, or, The Making of the English Hunting Seat; D.Landry