De arboribus
De arboribus (About Trees) is a concise textbook from the first century. Chr. In Latin, mainly the wine treated. Perhaps the author is Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella .
Lore
In all surviving manuscripts of the de re rustica (Columella) there is an obvious foreign body between the second and third books, the liber de arboribus . In the printed edition of Jocundus Veronensis by Aldus Manutius in 1514 , the liber de arboribus was placed at the end as the thirteenth book, where it remained in most editions.
The author and relationship with Columella
Since the liber de arboribus was integrated into the large agricultural work de re rustica des Columella and dealt with the same subject, it was assumed that Columella was also the author of this small work. At the beginning of the book reference is made to a previous volume, so that it was assumed that it was the rest of a multi-volume work.
Chapters 1 to 16 deal with viticulture and are linked in many ways to books 3 and 4 of Columella. The following chapters on fruit growing are largely almost identical to parts of Book 5.
The short liber de arboribus may be part of a first draft that Columella wrote when he was young. The later work is much more extensive and of higher quality.
Other editors come to the opinion, based on text comparisons and style analyzes, that Columella is not the author. Rather, a later author, who, in addition to the work of Columella, also had books by Pliny the Elder and other authors, gave a brief, simplifying presentation.
content
In chapters 1 to 16 the cultivation of vines is presented. All processing steps are described from the selection of the plant veins and processing of the soil to the beginning of the harvest. Harvesting and pressing are ignored. The descriptions are generally very factual. But also superstitious content found its way into (15th chapter):
... plenam lunam observabimus, cum erit in signo Leonis ..., et noctu ad lunam putabimus.
... you wait for the full moon when it is under the sign of the lion ... and prune the vines at night by moonlight.
From Chapter 16 the cultivation of various useful trees is dealt with. The olive tree, fig tree and the snail clover are particularly discussed.
Text editing and translation
- Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella: Twelve books on agriculture , book of an unknown person on tree cultivation . Edited and translated by Will Richter , Munich and Zurich 1982
literature
- Karl Ahrens: Columella, on agriculture , Berlin 1972
- Will Richter : Der liber de arboribus and Columella , Munich 1972
Individual evidence
- ^ Will Richter: Der liber de arboribus and Columella , I. Tradition and testimony of the liber de arboribus , pp. 5–8.
- ^ Kappelmacher : Iunius (Moderatus). In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume X, 1, Stuttgart 1918, Sp. 1054-1068., V. editions
- ^ Karl Ahrens: Columella, about agriculture , introduction, p. 33.
- ^ Will Richter: Der liber de arboribus and Columella , I. Tradition and testimony of the liber de arboribus , p. 22.