| Item Description: | Michael Laird, bookseller, description: Folio (328 x 208mm). [6] ff, 773 [1] pp. (lacking 19 page register at end; clearly this copy never contained it). Collation: ):( 6 A-Z6 Aa-Zz6 Aaa-Rrr6 Sss4. Contemporary green-dyed vellum, central arms gilt to upper cover, red edges (lacking ties, gilt rubbed, minor worming to covers; paper [?] spine labels removed). Title in red and black within historiated woodcut architectural border, full-page woodcut of physician Melchior Sebizi, 40 large woodcuts and 13 smaller woodcuts within text, woodcut initials and tailpieces, Gothic letter. Worming to flyleaf and title page, minor browning, otherwise very good condition. Baron Ferdinand Hoffman copy of this rare German edition Charles Estienne and Jean Liebault's highly influential agricultural treatise, "La Maison Rustique." In this work Estienne and his son-in-law drew on the instruction on agriculture and rural life offered in treatises by classical authors, among them Palladius, Varro, Cato and Columella. It is illustrated with a variety of attractive woodcuts (some with monogram 'MF') on a range of subjects, from depictions of agricultural scenes and practices - including hunting, harvesting and bee-keeping - to diagrams of paw-prints and livestock anatomy. Indeed, a significant component of the work is on the care and feeding of horses, cows, oxen, mules, pigs, chickens and other birds, and bees. Originally published in Latin, it was translated into French by Richard Surflet, which was then translated into English by Gervaise Markham as "Maison Rustique, or The Countrie Farme." Markham, in his Preface to the Reader, gives a useful overview of the work which includes "the things about which husbandrie is occupied, as to cure the sicke labouring man, to cure beastes and flying fowles of all sorts." The arms on the upper cover and the large engraved armorial bookplate on the front paste-down are those of Ferdinand Hoffman (1540-1607), Baron of Grunbuchl and Strechau, Grand Marshal of Austria, financial advisor to Rudolf II and president of his Council. 'He indulged his love of books as ardently as the Emperor collected paintings and works of art...before he died in 1607 he had accumulated a total of over 10,000 volumes' (H.P. Rossitter, 'Ornament from a Sixteenth Century Library', in: Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, 1950, pp. 46-52). The distinctive dyed-green vellum of this volume is characteristic of Hoffman's bindings; he used green vellum and red morocco for contemporary authors. Hoffman's bookplate was engraved by Lucas Kilian, after a design by Matthaus Gondolach. In 1669, the majority of Hoffman's library went to Alexander Furst Dietrichstein of Nikolsburg Castle; part of it was sold at auction in 1928 and again in 1933. Book stamp of 'Rothamsted Experimental Library' on front paste-down.
Woodcut disease maps: bovine page 150, equine page 175. |
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