medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> Not necessarily split; goodness knows there's enough fabric in a 15th
> or 16th-century skirt that legs can remain decently covered. What I'm
> told (by an accomplished scholar who is also an accomplished
> horsewoman) is that even after Catherine de Medici, women often rode
> astride if they were, for instance, traveling long distances or over
> rough ground. It's a far more secure seat, and doesn't require
> holding the body in a twisted position as riding sitting sideways to
> the horse does. (The early "sidesaddles" were a simple platform with
> footrest, and the rider simply sat at a 90-degree angle to the axis
> of the horse with both feet on the footboard.)
>
There is an illumination of a mounted female personification in a manuscript of Ulrich of
Lilienfeld's Concordantia caritatis, dated between 1351and 1358, which Michael Evans
claims shows her riding side-saddle; see his "An Illustrated Fragment of Peraldus's Summa
of Vice: Harleian MS 3244," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 45 (1982), 14-
68, at pl. 7c. That puts it in the same period as the Lorenzetti paintings, and in a somewhat
comparable context. And somewhat before Catherine de Medici.
Cheers,
Jim Bugslag
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