The first printed book on agriculture, with extensive information from personal experience of winemaking 4 CRESCENTIIS, Petrus de. Ruralia commoda. [Augsburg:] Johann Schüssler, “about” 16 Feb. 1471 £175,000 [ 156661 ] First edition of the first printed book on agriculture, a splendid copy, handsomely bound and with important provenance. Regarded as “the major work on agriculture since the days of the Roman Empire” and “an unqualified success” (Anderson, p. 66), the first edition of Crescenzi is extremely scarce in commerce, with only four copies noted in commerce in the past 45 years.
Petrus de Crescentiis (Pietro de Crescenzi, 1230–1321) was an Italian jurist practising in Bologna at the time of Dante, and he is considered the greatest agronomist of the Middle Ages. In old age he retired to his country house, Villa dell’Olmo, and composed his book between 1304 and 1309, dedicating the work to Charles II of Naples. Drawing from the Latin classical authors, particularly Columella, this well-organized manual comprises 12 parts focusing on different aspects of rural estate management, including horticulture, agriculture, farming, the properties of edible and medicinal plants, wine and winemaking, hunting, fishing, falconry, and beekeeping. Book four is devoted to all aspects of viticulture, including choosing a site, planting a vineyard, and harvesting the grapes, as well as recipes for making wine and other products from grapes. Crescenzi frequently refers to the region around Bologna and employs the first person more than in other books, suggesting that he was relaying the lessons of his practical experience on his own estate vineyard. He also adopts information from Burgundio da Pisa’s 12th-century De vindemiis , a manuscript translation from Greek into Latin of the winemaking sections of the Geoponica . Provenance: from the prestigious library of the Alfieri di Sostegno, the noble Italian family of Turin, with their armorial stamp gilt on the covers and armorial bookplate. This bookplate and its variants are attributed to Cesare Alfieri di Sostegno (1799–1869), Italian politician and cousin of the celebrated poet Vittorio Alfieri, and to his son Carlo (1827–1897), also a politician. Cesare was a renowned collector of incunables and early printed books, thousands of which were donated by Carlo and other descendants to Florentine libraries. Numerous examples now held in the Biblioteca Laurenziana are in French bindings of the period commissioned by Cesare. Latterly from the library of Professor Robert “Bobby” Boutflour, CBE (1890– 1961), with his ownership inscriptions in pencil, gifted to him by British Oil and Cake Mills, then by family descent. Boutflour was a notable figure in British agricultural circles. From 1931 to 1958 he was principal of the Royal Agricultural University at Cirencester and was responsible for a radical remodelling of the university, expanding the student numbers from 50 to 800 during his tenure. He published significant works, particularly relating to dairy farming, and played an important role in the growth of international farming yields in the austere post- war period.
Folio (288 × 206 mm), ff. [209], bound without three final blanks x8–10. Green morocco signed E. Niédrée (of Paris, active 1836–54) and dated 1845, spine with gilt raised bands, floral gilt decoration and lettering in compartments, covers triple gilt ruled, turn-ins richly gilt with a floral roll matching the spine, marbled endpapers, edges gilt, green silk bookmarker. Housed in a custom slipcase. Gothic text in single column, two large initials illuminated in red and blue with ornate penwork, all the other initials painted in red, rubricated throughout. 20th-century calligraphic title hand painted on a card and mounted on the first binder’s blank. Binding firm and gilt bright, very occasional marks to contents, small damp stain at outer margin of a few leaves, tiny wormhole to final gatherings v and x mainly between lines and not affecting reading, otherwise exceptionally bright and clean throughout. A very good, wide-margined copy on thick paper. ¶ BMC II 328; ISTC ic00965000; Goff C965; GW 7820; Klebs 310.1; Yukushima 143. F. J. Anderson, An Illustrated History of the Herbals , 1997.
SIXTY FINE ITEMS
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
12
13
Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator