CRESCENZI, Pietro di

Ruralia commoda

      Augsburg, Johann Schüssler, ‘circiter’ 16 February 1471 [bound with:] RODERICUS ZAMORENSIS. Speculum vitae humanae. Augsburg, Günther Zainer, 11 January 1471 2 vols in one, folio (287 x 214 mm), [Crescenzi:] ff 210 [terminal blank used as pastedown]; [Rodericus:] 128; the Rodericus bound first, initial spaces supplied in red, blue, and green, some with flourishes and extensions, red paragraph marks and capital strokes, some contemporary ms foliation and quiring, some pinholes visible, a fine, large copy, with many deckle edges, in its original, probably Augsburg, binding of blindstamped vellum over wooden boards, covers ruled in blind in diamond pattern with stamps of leaf, fleur-de-lis, rose, scroll, etc., centre and corner bosses removed, clasps and catches present, copper index tab to Crescenzi, seventeenth-century gilt on paper labels (one black, the other white), a few small wormholes, a single minute hole penetrating into the final four leaves. £155,000 First edition, a fine, beautifully rubricated copy of the first printed and most important original medieval work on agriculture, husbandry, horticulture and viticulture.Crescenzi was born in Bologna ca 1231. He first studied medicine and natural sciences but then became a lawyer. He composed his text around 1306, drawing on the Roman writers whose works form the Scriptores rei rusticae, Cato, Columella, Varro, and Palladius, and supplementing it with his own experience and observations as a country landowner. ‘The contents of Crescenzi’s book provided anyone who worked on the land with a well-organized manual of procedure. The [book] is divided into twelve sections, each of which addressed itself to a specific agricultural topic. Book I discusses the best location and arrangement of a manor, villa, or farm, and touches on every necessary point from proper water supply to the dues of the head of the household. Book II provides the farmer with the botanical background needed to raise every kind of crop. Book II tells how to build a granary and a threshing floor, and how to cultivate cereal, forage, and food crops. Book IV is on vines, wine-making, the means of preserving both fresh and dried grapes. Books V and VI are on arboriculture and horticulture, respectively. Book VII is on meadows and woods, while Book VIII, which contains a quantity of original material, is on gardens, and is very much the model for gardening books of the 16th and 17th centuries. Book IX concerns animal husbandry and bee-keeping (honey was then the major source for sweeteners). Book XI offers a general summary of the work, and Book XII is a calendar of duties and tasks to be performed month by month’ (Anderson, An illustrated history of herbals). Books V and VI, the largest section of the work, comprise the herbal or botanical portion per se. Some 185 plants useful for medicine or nourishment are described. Four variants exist in the collation of the last three gatherings, but do not involve textual difference. This copy agrees with the Berlin and Chatsworth copies. The collation of this copy is given in a manuscript marginal note in the BMC photofacsimile reprint of the master catalogue. The Rodericus Zamorensis is the second edition (first Rome, Sweynheym and Pannartz, 1468). It is a treatise on the duties and benefits of various callings, secular and religious. It went through numerous editions and translations. This and the Crescenzi were almost certainly bound together because they were issued in the same place at almost the same time. Provenance: contemporary inscription on first page ‘Iste liber est monasterii S. Magni in faucibus alpini’ on first leaf, i.e. Benedictine monastery of St. Mang, Füssen; Princes von Öttingen-Wallerstein, with stamp on first page (they acquired most of the St. Mang library in 1803); C.S. Ascherson, with bookplate, sold to Bernard Quaritch ca 1944, with their collation note and cost code on rear pastedown; Bernard Quaritch catalogue 645 (1947) n. 293, priced £180; Clifford Rattey (1886-1970) with bookplate I. BMC II p 328; BSB Ink S-59; Goff C965; GW 7820; Hain 5828; Klebs 310.1; Oates 891; Simon 32; Stillwell 615; Walsh 528; II. BMC II p 316; BSB Ink S-59; Goff R215; Klebs 857.3; Walsh 496-7