Cato; Varro; Columella; Palladius. DE RE RUSTICA, Köhl, Gymnicus, 1536

Description

DE  RE RUSTICA. Priscarum vocum in libris de re rustica enarrationes per Georgium Alexandrinum. Philippi Beroal(di) in lib. XIII Columellae annotations. Aldus de dierum generibus, simul atque de umbris & horis, quae apud Palladium cum indice copiosissimo eoque novo 

Explanations of ancient words in books on rustic matters by George of Alexandria. Philip Beroal(di) in book XIII of Columella's annotations. Aldus on the types of days, together with the shadows and hours, which is published by Palladium with a very copious index and also new.

Cologne, Joannes Gymnicus 1536.

Small octavo (15 x 10 cm.); pp. [xxxii], 814, [8]; printer’s device on title page, 16 woodcut illustrations, woodcut initials. Blindstamped pigskin over wooden boards. Waterstains at the beginning, ownership note on titlepage, two handwritten titles on spine, one on label.

Comments:

An early edition of the most significant surviving European agricultural compendium from antiquity. This volume features charming woodcut illustrations—originally published in the first Aldine edition of 1514—depicting farming tools, land surveying instruments, geometric diagrams, and vineyard layouts. The collected works of the Scriptores rei rusticae were first compiled in the editio princeps, edited by Georgius Merula and printed in Venice in 1472. The treatises by Cato, Varro, Columella, and Palladius cover topics such as viticulture, olive and fruit cultivation, animal husbandry, and agricultural labor. The collection also includes Renaissance humanist commentaries by Merula and Filippo Beroaldo, along with Aldus Manutius’s agricultural calendar.

Reference: VD16 L 1580. STC 187. Adams S 815 (Scriptores rei rusticae)