Abstract
Though mares were essential to the breeding of medieval warhorses, they are elusive in written and iconographic sources dominated by male horses. When they appear, their portrayal is ambiguous: thirteenth-century encyclopaedists describe them both as an ideal representation of motherhood and as lascivious beings. This may have influenced the perception of mares in the context of equine husbandry. This paper compares descriptions in thirteenth-century encyclopaedias to French versions of Rufus’s De medicina equorum (1250), and to its 1456 reinterpretation by Guillaume de Villiers. The Roman d’Alexandre (1180) by Alexandre de Paris, and the financial records of Charles VI (1368-1422) are used to understand the complex cultural perception of mares. Despite negative sexual undertones, mares were portrayed as strong and independent, eliciting wariness and admiration.
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