Hilda NelsonDuring a visit to Holland, de Pluvinel met a certain Crispin de Pas, an artist whom he engaged as drawing-master for his academy. He then asked de Pas to make the engravings for his manuscript, L'Instruction du Roy. However, before the book could be ublished, de Pluvinel died. He had been engaged in revising it at the time of his death. After de Pluvinel's death, de Pas obtained an unrevised copy of the manuscript from a servant named Peyrol. Then in 1623, de Pas, published this unrevised and unfinished manuscript, with his own engravings with the title, Le Maneige Royal. All of this was done without the consent of de Pluvinel's literary executor, René Menou de Charnizay who had official custody of the revised manuscript. Eventually, after many difficulties, René Menou de Charnizay rewrote the text of Le Maneige Royal in 1625 and later obtained the plates of the de Pas engravings-which incidentally are wonderful examples not only of a horse's position but also of the fashions of the day. Thus, in 1626, the book was produced in its present form. Le Maneige Royal is an extremely important equestrian classic, which is also of vast artistic and historical interest and merit. Xenophon Press is pleased to make this work available once more to the English speaking world. Read More Read Less