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

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

£4,250 · Offered by Sokol Books

The early initials painted gold with red penwork were probably produced in France by an anonymous artist. They reflect types based on Roman epigraphy, especially Geoffrey Tory s manual Champfleury (Paris, 1529). They may have been inspired by the gilt initials often executed for Jean Grolier. The finely gilt thistles on the spine closely resemble those in Barber, Printed Books and Bookbindings , FL. 75, W.Cat.212. A fine, large copy of this successful collection of famous classical texts on agriculture, edited by the friar and humanist Giovanni Giocondo and integrated with material from the Giunta edition of 1521. The thorough subject index which precedes the texts was devised for a C16 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 libri tres on his direct experience of farming. He notably warns his readers to avoid marshlands, where animalia minuta that cannot be se

• Binding: Hardcover

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