Les XX livres de Constantin César

In-folio of (8) ff., 94 ff., title within a woodcut border, half sheep, ribbed spine. Contemporary 18th-century binding.

338 x 220 mm.

Constantine, Caesar. The XX Books of Constantine Caesar, wherein are discussed the good teachings of Agriculture: translated into French by Mr. Anthoine Pierre, licentiate in law. With royal privilege.
Poitiers, Jehan & Enguilbert de Marnef, 1543.

“The extremely rare first edition.”

First French edition of this famous treatise on gastronomy.
Brunet II, 1540, Vicaire 203, Simon, 380 for the 1545 edition.

Published in Greek in 1539, based on a manuscript from the 7th century and under the name of Emperor Constantine of Byzantium, the “Geoponica” or “De Rustica” is a major work on Agriculture, gastronomy, and viticulture.

This first French edition was a great success and was subsequently reprinted under different titles.

The edition is adorned with a large title, set within a beautiful Renaissance border of scrolls and arabesques, motifs of foliage and fruits, cherubs and dragons, the emblem of the pelican feeding its young, the sign of the de Marnef family, and their initials.
Dedicated to Hugues de Commange, Prothonotary of the Holy Apostolic See, Lord of Herce in Couzerans, it is printed in a beautiful italic typeface.

It is a treasure trove of information on ancient rural economy.

Meteorology, cultivation of wheat, barley, and grain, various monthly tasks, methods of raising horses, oxen and sheep, chicks, geese, ducks… sowing and harvest, the condition of the sharecropper and the ploughman, all these matters are analyzed with a multitude of very concrete details.

Four entire books are devoted to the vine and wine (Books IV to VIII).

A major document on the world of winegrowers and ancient winemaking technique.

The design of gardens, planting of trees, flowers and medicinal herbs, planting of olive trees and the method of making oil, pruning trees, the fight against caterpillars, fleas and bugs… are then the subject of precise and detailed studies.

Gastronomy is also present.
Hunting and fishing are described in books XIV and XX.

Precious copy, with immense margins preserved in its sober and pure 18th-century binding.