PREFACE

I will provide the most illustrious example of all, a passage from book II, title 3, section 2, where only Vincent preserved the traces of a lacuna to be interpolated from Columella, with the addition of a few words for which there is no evidence noted in the remaining codices. You will find other examples noted in title 9 of book III.

Besides Columella, Palladius translated many chapters from Vitruvius regarding the art of architecture, with the sentiment of Vitruvius usually contracted into a compendium of words. In these places, I diligently compared not only Vitruvius himself, but also his Italian interpreter, Galiani, who used two Vatican manuscripts, with Pliny, who copied Vitruvius, and with Isidore and Vincent, who copied both. Furthermore, I consulted the Anonymous Compendium of Vitruvian Architecture, which translated almost the same chapters from Vitruvius as Palladius, along with the observations of the distinguished Polenus published in his second Exercitatio Vitruviana Vitruvian Exercise; where I found anything that seemed to me to pertain to the interpretation of Palladius, you will find it transferred there. I was unable to consult the Spanish interpretation of Vitruvius, which is said to have the readings of many manuscripts attached. About the Anonymous Compendium of Vitruvian Architecture, more will be said again shortly.

Palladius taught the cultivation and discipline of orchard and garden trees much more diligently and accurately than Columella—if you except the olive—or rather, he excerpted it from the books of Gargilius Martialis.