LA GUERINIÈRE, François Robichon de.- Ecole de cavalerie, contenant la connoissance, l'instruction ...

LA GUERINIÈRE, François Robichon de.- Ecole de cavalerie, contenant la connoissance, l'instruction, et la conservation du cheval.- A Paris: Jacques Collombat, 1733.- [8], 276, [8] p.: 1 portada gravada, il.; 44 cm.- E.
First folio edition of a monument to equestrian art, unanimously regarded as one of the most beautiful French editions of the 18th century (the first two, with a small in-16th format, were published between 1729 and 1731, this being the third). The edition is illustrated with an engraved frontispiece representing the education of Achilles, with the bust of Louis XV in a medallion, 24 icopperplate prints and three large allusive vignettes (140x235 mm), one at the beginning of each of the three parts of the work. , opened on copper plate by the best engravers of the time (Cars, Aveline, Cocart, Audran, Lebas, Beauvais et Desplaces), according to originals by Charles Parrocel and Antoine Coquart. François Robichon de la Guérinière (1688-1751), recognized as the founder of the French equitation school, began his activity as a squire to the Count d'Armagnac who, in 1715, commissioned him to found an equestrian academy in Paris. From 1730 until his death, with his brother Pierre as a partner, he directed the Académie des Tuilleries, having as patron Prince Charles of Lorraine, chief squire to King Louis XV. We can consider the set of 24 prints in five groups. I - Double prints: 1 - Le nom et la situation des parties extérieures du cheval (at the beginning of the text); 2 - The course des têtes et de la bague (p. 166); 3 - Maladies du cheval (p. 184); II - Technical prints (A. Coquart — Border): 4 - La bride (p. 32); 5 - Les différentes especes de fers (p. 40); 6 - La selle (p. 48); III - Teaching Schemes (printed next to the text, full page): 7 - Plan d'une académie régulière (p. 58); 8 - Plan de terre de l'épaule en dedans (p. 106); 9 - Plan de terre de la croupe au mur (p. 111); 10 - Le doubler (p. 122); 11 - Plan de terre des changements by main (p. 123); 12 - Les voltas" (p. 130); 13 - Demi-voltes, passades et pirouettes (p. 135); IV - Prints by Parrocel et Audran (allures): 14 and 15 - Les allures naturelles" (p. 74 et 74 bis); 16 and 17 - Les allures artificielles (p. 78 et 81); 18 - Le squelette du cheval" (p. 172); V - Figures of knights (originals by Parrocel): 19 - L'épaule en dedans (p. 104); 20 - Le marquis de Beauvilliers (p. 109); 21 - Monsieur de Kraut (p. 114); 22 - Mr. le Comte de St Aignan (p. 117); 23 - M. le Marquis de La Ferté (p. 125); 24 - SAS Charles prince of Nassau" (p. .143). Copy slightly handled, with occasional minor stains, but complete and solid, generally clean, with all prints well placed. Old handwaritten ownership on title page: "ex libris" G. Ducros, med. Stamp [22] (p. 177) added from another copy (shorter). Full sheepskin contemporary binding, a little worn, keeping the original endpapersin marbled paper. Cohen, 588. Graesse, IV, p. 79. Brunet, III, 769. Mennessier de La Lance (Bibliographie hippique), II, p. 27