Paper short abstract:

Horses were everywhere in early modernity, but the significance of those in Renaissance Mantua have not received sufficient attention. An ethnohistorical framework highlighting convergences and divergences between history and anthropology allows for the reconsideration of Gonzaga statecraft.

Paper long abstract:

Anthropologist Levi-Strauss laid the groundwork for modern interpretations of totemism when he argued that these selected animals are powerful sources and representations of identity. While historians have noted that horses were everywhere in early modernity, the significance of those in the Gonzaga stable in Renaissance Mantua have not received sufficient attention. An ethnohistorical framework makes it apparent that these horses were not beasts of burden; they represented an effective calculated, strategy to construct an illusion of virtú. The significance of Francesco Gonzaga's horses challenges scholarship's continued focus on Isabella d'Este as Mantua's noteworthy agent of culture. By focusing on correspondence in the ducal collection, centered on this totem, the convergences and divergences between history and anthropology become a lens through which to reconsider Gonzaga's statecraft. Faced with the decline of the small state, horses became vital symbols of power for a marquess playing the Machiavellian scoundrel. This episode's significance has been overlooked by both history and anthropology because the cultural biography does not connect easily to the voices of those in the distant past or to those of living people. Ethnohistory can be used as a tool to interpret this cultural phenomenon in a more informed context. Historians do not study animals under natural conditions so a mire of causal explanations often places these horses in the larger context of the customs of gifting in early modern statecraft. A reconsideration of the horse as subject under unnatural conditions allows for a nuanced reassessment of the cult of the horse.