All interest in, and knowledge of the different breeds
of horses is as old, no doubt, as riding itself, and the crossing of
the European with the Asiatic must have been common from the time of
the Crusades. In Italy, a special inducement to perfect the breed was
offered by the prizes at the horse-races held in every considerable
town in the peninsula. In the Mantuan stables were found the in-
fallible winners in these contests, as well as the best military
chargers, and the horses best suited by their stately appearance for
presents to great people. Gonzaga kept stallions and mares from Spain,
Ireland, Africa, Thrace, and Cilicia, and for the sake of the last he
cultivated the friendship of the Sultans. All possible experiments were
here tried, in order to produce the most perfect animals.
Even human menageries were not wanting. The famous Cardinal Ippolito
Medici, bastard of Giuliano, Duke of Nemours, kept at his strange court
a troop of barbarians who talked no less than twenty different
languages, and who were all of them perfect specimens of their races.
Among them were incomparable _voltigeurs _of the best blood of the
North African Moors, Tartar bowmen, Negro wrestlers, Indian divers, and
Turks, who generally accompanied the Cardinal on his hunting
expeditions. When he was overtaken by an early death (1535), this
motley band carried the corpse on their shoulders from Itri to Rome,
and mingled with the general mourning for the open-handed Cardinal
their medley of tongues and violent gesticulations.
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