PREFACE.

...is shorter Completing the description of a manuscript from the previous page., but of all those which I have happened to see so far, it is by far the most corrected, and in age, it is scarcely inferior to that mutilated Cottonian one. Moreover, in the Bodleian Archives The historic research library of the University of Oxford. [A. No. 2922], I finally found two manuscripts bound together after seeking them for a long time; of these, one was written at the expense of Christophe de Longueil original: "Christophori Longolii" (1488–1522), a famous Flemish humanist scholar., as he himself testifies on the first page in his own hand; the other, however, appears to be merely a Transcript original: "Apographum"; a copy of a manuscript rather than an original. of de Longueil's Codex A handwritten book., so much do they agree word for word, even in the errors of writing. A printed book as well, compared with two Palatine manuscripts, placed among the books of Dr. Bernard in the Bodleian Library, presented itself to me.

As for the translation, I decided to retain that old one by Janus Cornarius A German humanist and physician (1500–1558) known for translating Greek medical and agricultural texts into Latin. (published three or four times before); it is perhaps less elegant, but for the most part faithful. Any person of fair judgment will easily perceive that it has been purged of almost innumerable faults. Nor do I deny that some help came to me from the translation made by Andrés Laguna of Segovia original: "Andrea a Lacuna Secobiensi" (1499–1559), a Spanish physician and botanist., finally discovered at Oxford: he published the last eight books of the Agricultural Pursuits original: "Γεωπονικῶν" (Geoponika); the Greek title of the work., translated by himself and illustrated with brief notes, at Cologne in the year of our Lord 1543. However, on the title page, he boasts of having done more than he actually did; for he either entirely omitted very many things or understood them incorrectly.

A few emendations were included in our notes from the version by Cornarius, printed at Venice in the year of our Lord 1538, and annotated here and there in the margin by Janus Gruter A Flemish-Dutch philologist and librarian (1560–1627)., whose book it once was. The Italian version of the Geoponica, published in Venice in 1542 by Pietro Lauro of Modena, was by no means neglected by me; nor was I unaware of the French translation which appeared at Lyon in 1557, though fortune has not yet presented this one to me. It must not be denied, indeed, that I [have corrected] very many things, especially...