 In the treatise "Il Cavallarizzo" written by Claudio Corte in 1562, three years after the end of the Great Italian Wars, the author describes how the best Neapolitan war horses came from the Puglie region and from Calabria, indicating that "Neapolitan horses" were all the horses bred for war in the Kingdom of Naples, which included Puglie and Calabria.Hence, the Murgese is considered as the direct descendant of the famous Neapolitan horse.The present day Murgese breed was developed from horses selected in 1926, when the herdbook was established, and is possibly a more refined version of the original Murgese horse.