Beschreibung:

Petrus de Crescentiis, Liber Ruralium Commodorum (on practical agriculture and estate management), in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Italy (almost certainly Rome), c.1465] 172 leaves (fols.6 and 172 blank), 330mm. by 230mm., complete, collation i-xvi10, xvii12, horizontal catchwords, double column, 41 lines in dark brown ink in a semi-humanistic hand, rubrics in head, simple 2-line initials in blue, fourteen large white-vine illuminated initials, 5-12 lines in height, in colours and burnished gold with ornate foliage interlace on blue, green and red grounds extending into borders and terminating in thistle-like flowerbuds surrounded by gold bezants (fols.1r, 7r, 15v, 38v, 46v, 66r, 86r, 91r, 115r, 117r, 120v, 150r, 158v and 168v; that on 15v with small smudge in centre), initial on fol.1r with a butterfly alighting on a tendril, that on 7r with extensions filling three borders and enclosing three butterflies, three brightly coloured dragons, and arms in a circular medallion in the bas-de-page, the rubric on fol.120v a mistaken duplicate of the previous one, small hole in outermost edge of fol.7 due to thin vellum, slight discolouration of uppermost edge of some leaves, else in outstanding condition with wide and clean margins, eighteenth-century Italian gilt-tooled red morocco over pasteboards, ornamental borders and cornerpieces around the arms of Pope Pius VI, velvet-lined red morocco case by Rivière