CATO, Marcus Porcius, VARRO, Marcus Terentius, COLUMELLA, Junius Moderatus, PALLADIUS, Rutilius Taurus

by Marcus Porcius, VARRO, Marcus Terentius, COLUMELLA, Junius Moderatus, PALLADIUS, Rutilius Taurus Cato

£15,000 · Offered by Sokol Books

Bel exemplaire de cette édition, extr‚àö‚Ñ¢mement rare ( Catalogue des livres de la biblioth√®que de feu M. le marquis De Terzi , this copy, 1861, lot 195). The earliest recorded private owner of this copy was a priest in Bergamo, and the last the Bergamese Marquis de Terzi. It was the second edition issued in northern Italy, and one of only three works printed by the de Bruschis the first printers in Reggio Emilia. This is a good example of the rivalry between the prototypographers, five Italian incunabula of the Scriptores rei rusticae , by five different printers, in three cities; three editions by three different printers in one of them, Reggio Emilia After that the tradition of the four Scriptores was common (Sarton, Hellenistic Science and Culture , 388). This florilegium of agricultural works was devised for a readership interested in the classical rustic virtues of landownership and the practical aspects of country life, with topics as varied as the best place to set up a beehive, horticulture, remedies for dogs with flees and sick horses, ways to scare snakes off stables and regulations for workers. Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 BC) was a Roman statesman, military officer and author. His only complete, extant work, De Agri Cultura (c.160 BC) is a manual on the management of a country estate reliant on slaves, with a special interest in the cultivation of vines. A prolific writer patronised by Augustus, Marcus Terentius Varro (116-107BC) based his Rerum rusticarum libr

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.