Equestrian Treatises |
This section of the Bibliotheca Medieaevalis concerns works that are specifically concerned with horses. As far as known, there are no medieval works that specifically deal with the general education of the horse. However, there are two types of medieval works that focus on horses. On the one hand, there are the veterinarian works, mostly founded by popular De medicina equorum of Jordanus Rufus, which contains a small section on the general training of young horses. On the other hand, there is a treatise on applied horsemanship written in the early fifteenth century by king Duarte of Portugal.
Fight Books
This section of the Bibliotheca Mediaevalis concerns works that focus on the knightly martial arts. Although they are not concerned with horse training, the works listed in this section contain martial techniques on horseback which are fundamental sources to understand medieval horsemanship and its main application.
Tournament Books
This section concerns works on the medieval tournament practices. These works can have a variable nature, including normative texts on the rules of a tournament, treatises on the practice and techniques in tournaments or reports and descriptions of tournaments. These works are not only important for their textual content on one of the most important equestrian applications during the Middle Ages, but often hold valuable iconographic material that can further educate us on the knightly martial arts and medieval horsemanship.
Hunting Books
Because hunting was considered a part of the knightly martial arts and because many hunting techniques involve horsemanship and are related to martial techniques, also medieval works on hunting will be included in the Bibliotheca Mediaevalis.
Other Sources
In this section a non-exhaustive list of different types of sources that relate to the use of horses or the practice of medieval horsemanship are listed. First and foremost, iconography will be included in this section. Furthermore, also literary and narrative sources often contain valuable fragments on horsemanship. Finally, other sources such as treatises, normative sources or administrative sources may be included as well.