Agriculture. 1542 D'Agricoltura (Ruralia Commoda) by Pietro de Crescenzi, Venice

An early Italian language edition of the medieval Crescenzi's influential work on horticulture and agriculture in Italy, also known as the Ruralia Commoda. Crescenzi's work is based on the ancient De Re Rustica, and is laid out in the same manner of twelve "book". It was completed circa 1300, and first printed by a printer in 1471, making it the first printed text on agriculture. The twelve books can be described as:

1. Layout of a manor, villa or farm, considering climate, winds, and water supply; also the duties of the head of the estate properties
2. Botanical Properties of plants and horticultural techniques
3. Agriculture of cereals and building of a granary
4. Vines and winemaking
5. Arboriculture—trees useful for food and medicine
6. Horticulture—plants useful for food and medicine
7. Management of meadows and woodland
8. Pleasure gardens
9. Animal husbandry and bee keeping
10. Hunting and fishing
11. General summary
12. Monthly calendar of tasks

The work enjoyed great popularity in the 16th century, with over 50 editions in multiple languages.

About the Printer-

The Bondini family enjoyed great success in Venice, operating for around a century as a printing family known for printing important works, such as the Cosmographia, at affordable prices. In 1544 the blasphemy magistrates listed Bernardino Bindoni as a "seller of books and paper next to the church of San Giacomo di Rialto", just near the Rialto bridge.

Bibliographic Details -

Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) number 824578, 35 copies recorded but only five outside Italy/the Vatican at Bibliotheque Mazarine (France), two in Spain, the Wellcome Library (UK) and the Univ. of Penn. Library.

Censimento Nazionale delle Edizioni Italiane del XVI secolo reference number 13739.

Listed as R30.8 C86A in the Historic Books and Manuscripts Concerning General Agriculture, In the Collection of the National Agricultural Library, Naftalin, 1967.

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx. 16 x 11 x 5 cm. Protected in clamshell with leather title label on spine. Vellum binding over pasteboard boards. Gatherings of eight (octavo). Some inhabited initials.

No pagination but [376]

Collation – A-Z8, AA-ZZ8, cross8

Collates complete using the gathering signatures.

Condition -

See pictures. Protected in clamshell; clamshell with a small red stain to front top corner and a little rubbing to spine label. Binding with some edge and corner wear, a few stains and rubs, a small chip along the fore-edge of the front board and several worm holes near the rear joint. No endbands. Front hinge cracked. Ex libris inscription on flyleaf; endpapers replaced. Text block with some rubbing (gnawing) along fore-edge and top corner. Text block seems washed, as it has a soft feel and there is no dust along the edges; hints of mold stains at the bottom corner (faded circle stains) lead me to believe it was cleaned.

Moisture mark throughout the text block.

Some toning, occasional thumb, dog-eared corner and fox spot throughout. Graphite “1542” on title page. 1st gathering seems mounted. Worming at top margin from M gathering through T gathering. Black spot on verso of leaf Z7 and AA4. DD7 with a 3” tear from bottom edge. Last gathering mounted. Last leaf with the bottom chipped away below finis date. Some annotations in an old hand on verso of last leaf. Some numbers on rear pastedown in graphite.