CRESCENZI, Pietro de

by Pietro de Crescenzi

£4,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

A fine, handsomely illustrated, copy of the Italian translation of Pietro de Crescenzi s famous writings on agriculture, printed in over 50 editions in several languages between 1471 and 1600. Crescenzi (c.1230/30-1320) studied law, medicine and natural science at Bologna. After retiring from a long legal career, he spent much time at his estate in the Bolognese countryside. There he was inspired to write De agricultura vulgare (c.1304) first printed as Ruralia commoda in Nuremberg in 1471 a treatise on agriculture based on classical and medieval sources and his direct experience. Like its most important models Columella s De re rustica and Palladius s Opus agriculturae De agricultura was fundamental for the humanist re-elaboration of the rustic values of landownership so dear to the ancient Roman elites. The work presents an ideal holistic landowner who is knowledgeable about all aspects of estate management, from the architecture of buildings to the caretaking of gardens and meadows, wine-making, bee-keeping, hunting, farming, and the use of trees and plants for medicinal and nutritional purposes. The physical and spiritual well-being of Crescenzi s country life is identified with the harmony of the human and the natural following Avicenna s theories of the bodily humours. The superb woodcuts, many of which were drawn from the Venetian edition of 1495, depict a variety of subjects, from techniques for distilling river water and planning gardens to ways of ensuring that oxen

• Binding: Hardcover

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