The author, Pietro de Crescenzi, latinized as Petrus Crescentiis (c.1233-1321), born in Bologna, studied medicine and natural sciences at the University of Bologna, but later became a lawyer and held political and judicial positions in northern Italy. He composed his Ruralia following his retirement to his country estate, Villa dell''Olmo, near Bologna in 1299. The work was completed circa 1306. Crescenzi, knowledgeable in the subjects of agriculture and botany, incorporated into his text the agricultural perspectives of the Romans (drawing on the writers whose works form the 'Scriptores rei rusticae': Cato, Columella, Varro, and Palladius), the botanical knowledge of Albert the Great and Ibn Sina, as well as the practical perspectives of medieval Italian farmers, and his own experience as a country landowner.
This popular and influential treatise covers a wide range of topics, from hunting and fishing, wine-making, the cultivation of crops and grape-vines, trees and plants, and the medicinal use of plants, to animal husbandry and the diseases of cattle and horses.

"The contents of Crescenz's book provided anyone who worked on the land with a well-organized manual of procedure. The [work] is divided into twelve sections, each of which addressed itself to a specific agricultural topic". (Frank J. Anderson, An Illustrated History of the Herbals)

Summary of Contents:
• Book I discusses the best location and arrangement of a manor, villa, or farm, and touches on every necessary point from proper water supply to the duties of the head of the household.
• Book II provides the farmer with the botanical background needed to raise every kind of crop.
• Book III tells how to build a granary and a threshing floor, and how to cultivate cereal, forage, and food crops.
• Book IV is on vines, wine-making, the means of preserving both fresh and dried grapes.
• Books V and VI are on arboriculture and horticulture, respectively.
• Book VII is on meadows and woods,
• Book VIII, which contains a quantity of original material, is on gardens, and is very much the model for gardening books of the 16th and 17th centuries.
• Book IX concerns animal husbandry, domestic animals, and bee-keeping (honey was then the major source for sweeteners).
• Book X deals with hawking, hunting and fishing.
• Book XI offers a general summary of the work, and
• Book XII is a farmer's calendar of duties and tasks to be performed month by month.

The largest section of the work is formed by Books V and VI which comprise the herbal or botanical portion per se of the Ruralia commoda. There Crescenzi describes 185 plants useful for medicine or nourishment.

The book is attractively illustrated with fine woodcut border around the dedication page, and numerous woodcuts in the text of plants as well as genre scenes showing husbandry activities, animals, falconry, hunting, and other country pursuits.
"Petri seems to have used an entirely different set of blocks for all of the illustrations for this edition, none of them resembling the heavier work found in the edition of [Peter Drach, 1490-1495], or of the 1512 edition. The woodcuts of the plants are finely cut, delicate and lively, and much in the character of the best done in Brunfels and Fuchs, though a good deal smaller" (Hunt, 58).

Bibliographic references:

Hunt, 58; Adams C-2930; Wellcome Cat. 1651; Graesse II, p.299; BM (NH) 1: 1651.
Also cf. Crossgrove. "Medicine in the Twelve Books on Rural Practices of Petrus de Crescentiis." In Manuscript Sources of Medieval Medicine, 1995, pp. 81-103.

Physical description:

Folio. Textblock measures 12" x 8" (304 mm x 201 mm).
Bound in full vellum over boards reusing a 16th century antiphonal manuscript leaf with a large illuminated initial in red and blue. Two pairs of (new) leather ties.

Pagination: (12), 385 [i.e. 393], (3) pp. Errors in pagination.
Signature collation: a6 A-Z6 Aa-Kk6.
COMPLETE!

Woodcut printer's mark on title-page (repeated on Kk6v), fine woodcut architectural decorative border to the dedication page (a2r), further illustrated with numerous (about 187) lovely woodcuts of plants, animals and genre scenes of rural occupations in text. Several woodcut decorative initials (mainly with putti).
Colophon on leaf Kk5 recto. Last leaf blank except for the printer's device on verso.
Preliminaries include Dedication (a2r) and extensive Index (a2v-a6v).

Condition:

Good antiquarian condition. Complete. Binding slightly rubbed. Extensive, but mostly marginal worming throughout: mostly limited to the outer and inner margins. Old repairs to several leaves at the beginning and at the end of the volume, with the loss of one letter on title-page, some loss to the woodcut border on the Dedication page (a2r) and some textual loss to the 9 pages of Index. However, fortunately, the worming does not appear to have caused any loss to the main text, which is all clear and readable, all the woodcuts (except the decorative border mentioned above) are also intact. Light browning to some leaves. Generally rather clean example. Binding tight.