La culture équestre de l’Occident: l’ombre du cheval. Tome III, Connaissance et passion par Daniel Roche

Abstract

Roche, Daniel. La culture équestre de l’Occident: l’ombre du cheval. Tome III, Connaissance et passion. Paris: Fayard, 2015. ISBN 978-2-213-66608-2. Pp. 496. Horses and humans have closely interacted for several millennia. Yet for many historians this relationship appears to have gone unnoticed. At the outbreak of the First World War, the numerical proportion of horses to humans in France was one to ten and the role they played in many essential spheres of human activity was immense. As the combustion engine gradually took over during the course of the twentieth century, the impact of horses in the lives of humans has been largely forgotten. This issue is addressed by Roche in his comprehensive study of “la culture équestre,”where he concentrates on the period between the Renaissance and the Belle Époque—when the number of horses in Europe tripled and their role in the lives of humans reached its apogée. Connaissance et passion is the third and final volume of this series. If the first two volumes focus on the economic impact of horses (Le cheval moteur, 2008) and their highly visible role in politics and the military (La gloire et la puissance, 2011), this work centers on the intellectual and artistic representations of horse culture through these centuries of considerable change and evolution. Divided into ten chapters, Roche’s book covers a variety of topics with meticulous precision—including seventy pages of notes—ranging from bibliographical analysis of equine literature (texts on military strategy, scientific treatises, studbooks, training manuals for horses and their riders, as well as an abundance of literary texts) to human leisure activities and entertainments, such as racing and on through the representation of horses in visual arts.Valuable insights into the development of the relationship between horses and humans abound (chapter 3,“Les chevaux des philosophes,”is especially rich in this regard). The discussion of the development of veterinary studies and its evolution from the folk wisdom of equine health imparted by grooms to the specialized scientific knowledge of professional veterinarians is also worthy of note. Roche compares and contrasts writings on horse culture as different as those by Gustave Flaubert (nineteenth century) and Étienne Binet (a Jesuit teacher from the Renaissance). As Roche explains: “Dans l’action interactive qui relie les chevaux et les hommes, leur représentation et leurs usages utilitaires, se construit un espace de dialogue entre les pensées, les croyances, les mythes et les pratiques sociales”(14). It is indeed this notion of dialogue and interaction that lies at the very heart of Roche’s wide-ranging study. With its focus on horse culture in history (including the history of science) and the arts (including literature and visual arts), all three volumes of this series would be valuable additions to any library’s collection. University of Louisville (KY) John Greene 244 FRENCH REVIEW 91.2 ...