On Agriculture and On Farming

for all of them, partly through the negligence of the scribes and partly through the interpolation of the Italians, are so corrupted that they represent a less accurate image of the old archetype. From these, I will indicate three codices which I used in Cato’s book: two Laurentians and one from Cesena. The parchment codex Laurentianus 51, 1, with a script slightly older than that found in other books of this type—so that Bandinius (Cat. cod. lat. bibl. Laur. vol. II, p. 526) assigned it to the fourteenth century—contains the books of Cato and Varro: "The chapters on rural affairs of M. Cato begin. How one ought to buy and prepare a field — worms may touch. The book of M. Cato on rural affairs ends happily. The first book of M. Terentius Varro’s rustic affairs on agriculture begins happily. The rubrics of the same book begin — this which I have explained, have. M. T. Varro’s third book of rustic affairs on village pasturage ends happily." In the first book of Varro, many things were corrected or annotated in the margins by a more recent hand, which once seemed to me to be that of Nicolaus Niccoli. Indeed, some of these seem to have been sought from the Laurentian codex 30, 10. The parchment codex Laurentianus 51, 2, mutilated by the cutting away of the first leaf, has Cato’s book with the first part of the chapters lost: "make Punic porridge thus (p. 7, 10) — the rubrics end. The book begins — worms may touch. The work of M. Cato on agriculture ends happily, then the three books of Varro — these things which I have explained, have. M. Terentius Varro’s books on rustic affairs on agriculture end happily." The parchment codex of the Malatesta Library of Cesena [42], 2, of the largest format, has the books of Cato and Varro written after the books of Columella, as follows: "The book of M. Cato on rural affairs begins. How one ought to buy and prepare a field — Puteolan meat-cuts. It is sometimes better — worms may touch. The End. M. Terentius Varro’s first book of rustic affairs on agriculture begins happily. The prologue of the same. I would have attained the whole — to the Greek pipe-player. The rubrics of the same book begin. Which Greeks — or for selling." Those things which were omitted after the verse "to the Greek pipe-player" until the end of the book were added later by the same hand, but in such a way that it appears the words were written at a different time: for a few were added in the space left before the chapters of the first book, and most were written in the margin: "in herds — have. M. Terentius Varro’s third book of rustic affairs on village pasturage ends."