The Theatre of Agriculture and Field Husbandry

...will be dedicated to Saffron, Flax, Hemp, and other materials suitable for the Household, even for furnishings and clothing.

IN THE SEVENTH, considering that Water and Wood are entirely necessary to the Household, I will treat them with care, so that our Head of the Household original: "Pere-de-famille." In this context, it refers to the master of an estate who oversees its economic and social order. may understand in a more refined manner the means to manage both: and consequently, have abundantly at home all that is required and necessary for him to live plentifully with his family.

IN THE EIGHTH and Final Place, I will show the Use of Foodstuffs, so that the Father and Mother of the Household may conveniently and honorably make use of the goods they have at home. I will instruct the Housewife original: "Mesnagere." The female head of the household, responsible for domestic production, preservation, and the health of the residents. on how to keep her home supplied with all things required, both for daily sustenance and for the provisions that serve throughout the year. I will teach her the true way of making Preserves original: "Confitures." In the 17th century, this term covered a wide range of preservation methods including pickling and candying, not just fruit jams., to preserve all fruits, all roots, flowers, herbs, and rinds, whether liquid or dry; in sugar, honey, must, boiled wine, salt, or vinegar. I will also provide some guidance on how to provide for the family through home industry with Lights, Furnishings, and Clothing, so that nothing is lacking for the household. I will have her perform Distillations and other preparations, and will give her well-tested Remedies to help herself and her people when illness occurs: as it is an infinitely inconvenient and perilous thing in the country to have no prompt relief for so many mishaps which often and unexpectedly occur, while awaiting more extensive remedies from the learned Physician, should the need arise. And since the Husbandman must also care for his Beasts, having spoken of Remedies for people, I will subsequently treat the medicines for Livestock. I will likewise say something of Hunting and other exercises of the Gentleman, so that our virtuous Head of the Household, while conducting his affairs, may find honest recreation. This will also serve him for the preservation of his health.

THIS is, in short, the Design of what I am to treat in this Theatre of Agriculture and Management of the Fields: having thus represented it in broad strokes, it remains now to show in detail what is proper to each Place.

May the JUDGMENT of it be left to learned Husbandmen; the profit to all those who desire to live honestly from the fruit of their Land; and the entire honor to God, whom, in this beginning, I invoke by a better title than Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman scholar whose work Res Rusticae was the standard agricultural manual of antiquity. De Serres here contrasts his Christian faith with Varro’s invocation of pagan agricultural deities. invoked his rustic and false gods.