Columella

Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella ( Gades in *, † AD 70 ) was a Roman writer.

Columella lived mostly in Italy and had near Rome a country manor. It is believed that he served in the Roman army and was stationed in Syria and Cilicia.

Columella wrote at the time of the Emperor Claudius a work on agriculture, horticulture and arboriculture in twelve books ( De re rustica); it is next to Cato's De Agri Cultura probably the most important surviving work on agriculture from Roman times. Furthermore, the second book of a work called De arboribus (over trees) is obtained. This work was overall probably much smaller than the main work and probably arose earlier.

Tradition history

In medieval Europe the Columella writings were not widespread. Are obtained from the 9-10. Century only ever a manuscript from Corbie ( now St. Petersburg, Russian National Library, Ms. Fv1 ) and Fulda (now Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana Cod L.85. Sup. ). Peter de Crescentiis quoted in the 13th century, from the 15th century, some 20 codices known, dating back to a discovered by Poggio Bracciolini manuscript is lost, however columella. Around 1470 Pomponio Leto wrote a manuscript collection with various texts, including Ovid and Serenus Samonicus, at the beginning he sat Columella De re rustica. The Codex is located since 1753 in the library of the British Museum. For the Biblioteca Aragonese an elaborately illuminated manuscript was created around 1488 by Francesco di Antonio del Chierico, which is now in the University Library Valencia. 1491 made ​​the Prämonstratenserabt Austrians Heinrich von Schussenried to a German translation, which was intended for Count Eberhard im Bart of Württemberg- Urach and his wife Barbara Gonzaga. It is located in the Württemberg State Library Stuttgart ( Cod cam. Oec et. 2 ° 1). Prints were made in 1472 in Venice by Nicolaus Jenson and 1482 in Reggio nell ' Emilia by Bartholomaeus de Bruschis in a collected edition of agricultural writers, which was a reprint of Jenson substantially.

Expenditure

• L. I. M. columellae De re rustica libri XII. Latin - German. Edited by Will Richter, Munich 1981-1983, with indexes Vol III 659-739 of Rolf Heine.
• L. June moderation columellae, Res Rustica. Incerti auctoris Liber de arboribus. Recognovit brevique adnotatione critica instruxit RH Rodgers. Oxford University Press 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-957119-2 ( critical edition ) ( SCBO )
• De re rustica / L. Junius Columella Moderatus. Uebers. by Henry Austrians. Edited by Karl Löffler. Litterar. Club in Stuttgart, Tübingen 1914. 2 vols. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Dusseldorf