Pietro de’ Crescenzi, Ruralium commodorum (Augsburg, 1471)
The Advantages of Country Living
This is the earliest published work on agriculture, a manual for managing a feudal estate. It is an ancestor to the early printed herbals. It explains what plants one must cultivate to be able to make the common remedies.
The first page, printed with movable type, was illuminated by hand with gold leaf and artistic flair.
Compare the typeface on the first printed page with the handwriting in Carolingian script on the facing page. The facing page is part of the original binding, made of brushed vellum. The markings above the lines of text are signs for Gregorian chant. The vellum is a 10th century Easter chant, recycled 500 years later as the original binding.
(In contrast, the style of the dark brown, outer binding suggests that it derives from the German speaking parts of Europe around 1600, more than a century after the book was printed.)
