PREFACE

TO

PALLADIUS ON AGRICULTURE

Learned men have attempted to determine the age of Palladius a Roman writer on agriculture through various conjectures. Gesner correctly pointed out that it was sufficiently evident that he was not a contemporary of Pliny and Quintilian, as Chr. Mylaeus had thought in his work on vehicles original: "de Re Vehic. II. 6. p. 116". Nor could he have lived in the time of Hadrian, as Ludovicus Vives believed; for he mentions Apuleius. Gesner noted that this argument had already been used by C. Barthius in his notes on Rutilius original: "Rutilii Itiner. I. 207". Nor has a writer older than Isidore of Seville been found who mentions the rustic books of Palladius. Isidore says in his Origines original: "Origin. XVII. 1": "Cornelius Celsus and Julius Atticus Aemilianus, or Columella, an eminent orator who encompassed the entire body of this discipline." Gesner would not have hesitated about whether this passage should refer to our Palladius or another Aemilianus, if he had remembered another passage in XVII. 10, where Isidore placed a passage of Palladius under the name Aemilianus in his work on Julius original: "in Iulio tit. 2". Furthermore, Cassiodorus says in his Divine Readings original: "Divin. Lect. c. 28": "Aemilianus explained twelve books on gardens or cattle and other matters with the clearest elucidation," where the number of books seems incorrect even to Gesner.