Beschreibung:

CRESCENTIIS, Petrus de (1233-1321). Il libro dell' Agricoltura , in Italian, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER [Pisa or Florence, mid-15th century] Median 2° (335 x 235mm). 170 leaves: 1 3 (of 4, lacking iv), 2 9 (of 10, lacking i), 3-4 10 , 5 9 (of 10, lacking iv), 6 10 , 7 1 2 , 8 10 , 9-15 1 2 , 16 1 4 , catchwords, original roman foliation ii-clxviiii from 4th leaf to end (2 ff. numbered xcviiii) followed here, double column, 42 lines written in brown ink in a script of varying humanistic aspect, justification: 228 x 150mm, rubrics and foliation in pink, two- to four-line initials alternately red and blue with contrasting flourishing and marginal extensions of lilac and red (light spotting, f.137 torn in inner margin). Contemporary Florentine brown goatskin, stamped and panelled in blind (rubbed, splits in upper joint, losses at head and foot of spine, lacking bosses and two clasps), modern black morocco box. PROVENANCE: 1. Andrea Lotteringhi della Stufa of Florence (still living 2 July 1471), for whom the Pisan scribe Silvestro de' Palmieri copied the manuscript: subscription on f.43 and inscriptions f.169v. One of the other manuscripts signed by Silvestro was written in Andrea Lotteringhi's house: A.C. de la Mare, 'New Research on Humanistic Scribes in Florence' in Miniatura fiorentina del rinascimento 1440-1525 , ed. A. Garzelli, p.536. CONTENTS: ff.1-3v, Contents list for books 1-10 ; ff.2-169, Pietrus de Crescentiis Il libro dell'Agricoltura in 12 books. Piero de' Crescenzi of Bologna (ca 1233 - ca 1320) is said to have composed the Libri XII Ruralium Commodorum at the insistence of his friend Fra Aimerico Giliani da Piacenza, General of the Dominicans. It was completed between 1304 and 1309 and dedicated to Charles II of Anjou. It was the first important treatise on agriculture to have been written since antiquity and its particular quality and value come from the combination of knowledge drawn from classical sources with that gained from Crescenzio's own experience in farming an estate, Villa dell'Olmo, outside Bologna. One of the classical texts drawn on was Columella's De re rustica (see lot 153). The twelve books provided a comprehensive coverage of all types of husbandry and farming from the positioning and forms of farm buildings, the time and manner of sowing, cultivating and harvesting, the fertility of land, water management, the treatment of all types of crop including oats, hemp, beans and rice, viticulture and winemaking, fruit and nut trees, medicinal and kitchen gardens, fungus -- which are good, which bad -- meadows and woods, decorative gardens, animal husbandry -- including the care and doctoring of horses -- fish and bee-keeping, hunting and fishing. The final chapter is a calendar of agricultural tasks running from pruning trees in January to weaving cages and traps in December. This encyclopedic range and the author's concern to provide useful, practical information ensured the book's success from the first half of the 14th century until the end of the 16th century. The book was translated into several vernacular languages. This Italian version seems likely to have been completed around 1350 by a Tuscan, perhaps a Florentine, and some years later the French translation was made for Charles V of France. Several editions in Latin, Italian and German were printed in the 15th century, the earliest in Augsburg in 1471 [GW 7820]. The present manuscript antedates them all.