Giovanni Pietro Pugliano is the esquire, or stablemaster, of Maximilian II’s court, and riding instructor to Sidney and Wotton. Sidney praises him not only a master of the technical art of riding, but also a kind of philosopher, who invites his students to contemplate the activity and its purpose, rather than merely master the skill. Like Wotton, Pugliano is not mentioned after the introduction of “An Apology for Poetry,” but he is the implicit model for Sidney’s own teacherly persona: Pugliano “sought to enrich our minds” and spoke creatively, perhaps even poetically, “according to the fertileness of the Italian wit.”