Page:Horse shoes and horse shoeing.djvu/421

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EUSTATHIUS.
393

spicuous, is now also copied from a French manuscript of the Apocalypse, written in the 13th century. The prominence given to the armature on the horse's hoofs shows how important it was deemed (fig. 147).


fig. 147

Another delineation will be found in a rare pamphlet printed in 1485, entitled 'Jacobi publici Florentini. Oratoris Institutio'.

In nearly all the manuscripts of this period, in which horses figure, their hoofs are represented as shod. We will give some additional examples of these presently.

Writers more frequently mention shoeing. Eustathius, who wrote a commentary on Homer, in the 12th century, is the first to mention the Greek horses of antiquity as shod, a statement we conclude to be erroneous, but which shows that Eustathius was well acquainted with the art. With the revival of learning, what may be designated veterinary medicine was again attracting atten-