(Un)Stable Identities: Hippology And The Professionalization Of Scholarship And Horsemanship In Early Modern Germany

Abstract

Somewhere in Germany, some time in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, a scholar bends over his desk, consulting ancient Greek and Roman sources and weaving these strands of classical information into his own text. This chapter presents the hippological connections between scholars and horsemen. It argues that these men's work with the horse served to legitimate and validate their respective occupations. In their familiarity with ancient sources, and in their activities as translators of foreign-language texts, physicians such as Gregor Zechendorf and Peter Offenbach are acting like humanist scholars. The propagation, maintenance, and training of horses characteristic especially of the elite entailed a multitude of tasks and thus a multitude of people to perform them. The chapter discusses about riders who trained the horses, especially because, like the humanists and scholars discussed in the first section, they seem to be another profession in transition. Keywords: Germany; Gregor Zechendorf; horsemen; Peter Offenbach; scholars