Ɵ The 'Harpenden codex' of Palladius, De re rustica, in the earliest Italian translation of the work, that attributed to the scholar-translator Andrea Lancia, decorated manuscript on paper [Italy (Tuscany, probably Florence), c. 1450-60]

48 leaves, complete, collation: i-ii16, iii12, iv4, plus two contemporary blank leaves at end, some quires with catchwords, double column of approximately 44-47 lines of a small and scrolling Italian vernacular hand, rubrics in pale red, watermark of a flower similar to Briquet 6655 (Palermo, 1462; Pisa, 1464-69; Perugia, 1456/58) and a pair of scissors perhaps identical to Briquet 3668 (Rome, 1454, 1456-60; Naples, 1459; Perugia, 1458), spaces left for initials, old water damage to top and bottom of volume, with some stains in those places and repairs to corners of first 6 leaves (losses to text minimal, with losses to corners of uppermost 6 lines of outer column there), first leaf nearly loose, other splits and small holes to leaves at each end of volume repaired with old tape, overall good condition, 295 by 222mm.; late fifteenth-century limp parchment binding reusing a bifolium from a fourteenth-century copy of the city ordinances of San Leonino in Tuscany, reused upside down and held in place by three alum-tawed pigskin thongs, an earlier (perhaps tacketted) binding suggested by sewing stations visible in gutters, some stains and wear to parchment leaves; all within a fitted cloth-covered case

An appealing humanist codex of this rare late Roman text, representing an important stage in the Renaissance history of the text, and still in its medieval binding

Provenance:
1. Written in Tuscany, perhaps Florence, for a wealthy scholar who probably lived in nearby San Leonino or had estates there (note the reuse of a manuscript from that town in its near-contemporary binding). The book's script is not refined enough to suggest a noble commission, and the lack of illumination consolidates this impression; however, it is written in a grand format, quite different from most scribbled scholarly copies.

2. Davis & Orioli, booksellers of Florence (from 1910) who then moved in 1913 to London, where J. Irving Davis carried on without G. Orioli, taking on H.A. Feisenburger as a junior partner from about 1935. This manuscript their cat. 32 (1922), no. 5; reappearing in cat. 39 (1924), no. 8; cat. 45 (1927), no. 6; and then appearing as no. 33 in a subsequent catalogue of theirs (leaf from this last catalogue loose in the volume, and in format of their general catalogue series but not among the copies of their catalogues held in the British Library); most probably sold then to the Lawes Agricultural Library formerly in Rothamsted for £20. That library recently dispersed.

Text:
Little is known with certainty of the late Roman author, Palladius (more properly Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus Palladius). He lived in the late fourth and early fifth century, probably came from a noble Gallic family and owned farms in Italy and Sardinia. He wrote this work, an encyclopedic treatise on agriculture in thirteen books, in a long tradition of Classical Roman works that saw the subject as a noble pursuit. He took the works of Cato the Elder (d. 149 BC.), Columella (4-70 AD.), Gargilius Martialis (fl. third century) and other now lost writers on the subject, and condensed them, reorganising their contents into a month-by-month approach to farming and food cultivation. This was the work through which the Middle Ages and later centuries knew of Classical interest in agriculture, and the work of the thirteenth-century author Petrus de Crescentius is a direct descendant of it. Medieval translations were made into Middle High German, Spanish, Middle English and Italian, while the Latin version was printed as early as 1472 by Nicholas Jensen in Venice.

The translation of Classical texts into Italian was an important area of the Renaissance. At its heart humanism sought to bring to light the works of Classical authors and enter into dialogue with them, and while the humanism of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century had focussed on the rediscovery of new Latin texts and translations from Greek, a new phase began around the middle of the fifteenth century with the emergence of translations of Latin works into Italian. This benefited both a growing elite readership and reflected the increasing power of vernacular Italian following Petrarch and Dante. Coluccio Salutati endorsed such translations and Leonardo Bruni set out new guidelines in his De interpretatione recta in c. 1426. The text here dates to the dawn of such activities, and is the earliest Italian translation of this Classical text, often attributed to the Florentine notary and ambassador, Andrea Lancia (after 1296-after 1357). In his youth Lancia produced an Italian translation of Seneca's Epistulae morales, and then moved on to translate the Aeneid for Coppo di Borghese, and the Penitential Psalms and 'Psalter of St. Augustine' for an unnamed friar, but he is best known for his Ottimo commento, an early commentary on Dante's Divina commedia written in the years following that poet's death. Eleven medieval manuscripts survive of this important translation, with the oldest that now Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana 2238 (see C. Marchesi, 'Di alcuni volgarizzamenti toscani in codici fiorentini', Studj Romanzi, 5, 1907, pp. 213ff.). The present manuscript shares the addition of an anonymous sonnet addressing the work, Io sono palladio della agricholtura ..., at its end, with Riccardiana 2238 and only two other manuscripts of the translation: Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana Plut. 43.28 and Segni 12. They are most likely to form a distinct group, preserving the oldest version of this translation. However, while the readings here are close to those of Riccardiana 2238, there are some orthographic variants and changes in word order, and the present codex may have had a now-lost sister of Riccardiana 2238 as its exemplar. The subject is deserving of further study.

Manuscripts of Palladius in any language are staggeringly rare on the market, with Sotheby's offering only three copies in the last century (i: that from the Oettingen-Wallerstein'sche library, sold 16 April 1934, lot 570; ii: the Clumber Park manuscript, sold on 6 December 1937, lot 960; and iii: another copy once Phillipps MS. 8246, sold on 19 May 1956, lot 126, and now in Harvard), and the only copy to appear in Christie's rooms was that owned by Harold Baillie Weaver (once Phillipps MS. 3346), sold on 29 March 1898, lot 476, and now in the Wellcome Library in London.

Published:
I. C. Cunningham and A. G. Watson, Medieval Manuscripts in British libraries V. Indexes and Addenda, 2002, p. 13.

M. Zaccarello, I sonetti del Burchiello, 2000. Pp. xxxii-xxxiii, 277.

V. Nieri, 'Sulla terza versione di Palladio volgare', Studi di Filologia Italiana, 71 (2013), p. 342.

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