Just a Bit of Control: The Historical Significance of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century German Bit-Books

Abstract

While recently engaged in research at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, I stumbled across an intriguing source the likes of which I had never seen before. It was an enormous book, published in folio format first in 1562 and then again in 1591, and comprised of over 400 pages, almost each one of which was lavishly illustrated with finely detailed copper engravings.1 The subject of this extravagant production came as a surprise to me: it was almost exclusively about bits, the metal mouthpieces attached to the bridles of horses and used to control the animals when riding. All in all, over 382 different bits were illustrated, one to a page (ca. 16 × 14″), with a brief explanatory text appearing below each illustration (figures 5.1 and 5.2). Each bit was an exquisitely and often astonishingly decoratively wrought piece of metalwork, its likeness lovingly rendered in the graphic medium that had itself developed out of the metalworking tradition, namely copperplate engraving. The book, written by the Augsburg spur-maker Hans Kreutzberger, was originally dedicated to the Hapsburg archduke and future Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian II.2