Antoine De PluvinelAntione de Pluvinel lived from 1555 to 1620. Of gentle birth, he was a courtier to three kings of France: Henry III, Henry IV, and Louis XIII. He studied equitation from an early age, and spent six years as a pupil of the great Giovanni Battista Pigntelli in Napoles (southern Italy). When de Pluvinel returned to France, he opened an academy for young gentlemen at the Faubourg St. Honoré, where the subjects of music, literature, painting, mathematics, and riding were taught. Monsieur de Pluvinel's reputation for honesty and his clarity of method in teaching were such that he was appointed governor to the Dauphin (the future Louis XIII). The fact that de Pluvinel's pupils understood him so well and were themselves, people of importance, helped spread his fame abroad and caused people to accept his methods. Thus, de Pluvinel forged a definite link between the Neapolitan school of riding and the French school of riding. Pignatelli, through his student was instrumental in initiating the French 'Golden Age of Equitation, ' an era of exploration of training as a high art, funded by the royal coffers that would last for two hundred years, until that aristocratic focus was ended by the French Revolution. Read More Read Less