CRESCENS Pierre de Le Livre des Prouffitz Champestres et Ruraulx. Touchant le labour des champs, vignes et jardins. Pour faire puys, fontaines, cysternes, maisons, et autres edifices.

See Bechtel, C-88; Schwerdt, I, 128 (similar edition but printed much later in 1533); Brunet, II, 417 (without any detail); also the Huzard copy (Huzard, sale II, lot 678).

Extremely rare French illustrated edition of Ruralium Commodorum Opus or Profits Champestres, also known as Bon ménager by Pierre de Crescens.

This is an undated edition, published by two printers, Jehan Petit and Michel le Noir. The only edition listed by Bechtel is dated 1516—he mentions another with an almost identical collation, printed by P. le Noir alone, which he dates to around 1518.

This beautiful edition is illustrated with a large vignette on the title page, followed by the text, composed of 12 chapters, each of which is decorated with a beautiful woodcut vignette (repeated four times, notably at the beginning of chapters 1, 4, 8, and 11).

As in the edition described by Schwerdt, here we find the beautiful woodcut on folio 118 announcing the chapter devoted to birds of prey, their breeding, and the care to be taken with these precious animals. This great English collector did not own any French editions of Crescens published before 1533.

“A most interesting treatise on the art of cultivating vines and making wine, the author of which, known as Petrus de Crescentiis or Pierre Crescenzi, refers to himself as follows: ‘Petrus ex Crescentia natus, civis Bononiensis’. ‘Book IV is devoted entirely to vines and wine: “De vitibus et vineis et cultu carum, ac natura et utilitate fructus ipsarum” (see Simon).

Drawing his inspiration from the great Latin authors – Cato, Varro, Palladius and Columella – as well as from medieval authorities, Crescenzi included in his treatise on rural economics the fruit of his own observations as well as information provided to him by scholars at the University of Bologna.

Written with great care and reviewed by a number of scholars, including Fra Amerigo da Piacenza, the work was an immediate success and soon spread throughout Europe. Charles V had it translated into French in 1373, and it was one of the first texts to go to press after the invention of printing, which shows the esteem in which it was held in humanist circles (the first edition appeared in Augsburg in 1471).

When it was published in 1471, it was also the first printed work to contain a section devoted entirely to hunting, while the other chapters dealt with all aspects of rural life: agriculture, ploughing, gardening, edible and medicinal plants, animal husbandry, vine-growing, bee-keeping, food, and so on.

Of particular interest are chapter 4 (vine cultivation, wine making) and chapter 10, devoted entirely to the breeding and care of birds of prey.

3 leaves with old restorations, num. leaf viii with some letters retouched, some occasional staining or spottting.

Provenance : Bibliotheca J. Richard (rubber stamp repeated on title, first leaf of table, and first text leaf).