De re rustica (Varro)
De re rustica (also: Res rusticae or Rerum rusticarum libri tres ; German: "About agriculture") is a three-volume textbook in dialogue form by the Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro , in which he treated all aspects of agriculture that were relevant at the time. Varro published the book in 37 BC when he was 80 years old. And dedicated it to his wife Fundania.
The complete work
Varro wants to cover all areas of agriculture in his plant. He divides it into three books, each of which concerns a sub-area, namely arable farming (De agricultura) , cattle breeding (De re pecuaria) and small animal breeding (De pastione villatica) .
The sources
Varro shows himself to be a well-read author and gives in Book 1 an impressive list of mainly Greek authors from whom he draws. These are philosophers and naturalists who have also touched on agricultural issues, including Xenophon , Aristotle and Theophrastus of Eresus . He particularly praises the Punier Mago . He judges the Roman writers Cato and the Sasera brothers negatively because of the 'miracles' they report. Nevertheless, he pulls them up more often.
The other essential source is experience. Varro is a landowner himself and describes his aviary in detail in book 3. The participants in the discussions are selected accordingly. Among other things , Gnaeus Tremelius Scrofa , "to whom the present day presents the victory palm in all agricultural matters", speaks about animal breeding. Claudius Appius reports what he was able to observe during the numerous visits to his peers.
Shape and structure
Each book is designed in the form of a discussion group. The participants change and are selected with regard to the specific topic. The conversation is loosened up by external influences. The talks are at different times, namely Book 1 between 45 and 37 BC. BC, book 2 in the year 67 BC. And book 3 in the year 50 BC. BC settled. The assumption has therefore emerged that Varro wrote the individual volumes earlier and 37 BC. Chr. Only revised and put together.
The content
The work is aimed primarily at the well-to-do landowner who should be fully informed. But detailed technical knowledge is also passed on. The agrarian-oriented sections are supplemented by scientific statements. The overall tone is loose and not dry, instructive.
Book 1: De agri cultura
Framework story
Varro meets between 45 and 37 BC. With some acquaintances in the Tellus temple in Rome. The most important participants in the conversation are Varro's father-in-law Gaius Fundanius , Gaius Licinius Stolo and Gnaeus Tremelius Scrofa . You are invited to dinner by the temple keeper. The host does not appear, but rather his freedman reports that he was killed on the street. Such a glaring light falls on the uncertainty of life in Rome.
content
There are “first soil and homestead, then human, animal. and equipment ”. In the following, a lot of space is given to the topic of which work has to be carried out when in the year. Astronomical knowledge is required of the estate manager if, for example, the rise of the Pleiades is given as the time.
Gnaeus Tremelius Scrofa also goes into the influence of the moon: "Some things should be done in the fields with a waxing rather than waning moon, some in the opposite case - namely, what you cut off, such as cereal plants and felled forests".
Book 2: De re pecuaria
Framework story
The interlocutors meet in 67 BC. BC during the pirate war on an estate, presumably near Buthroton . A rural festival is in preparation. The most prominent participants are Titus Pomponius Atticus and Gnaeus Tremelius Scrofa .
content
Book 2 "divides the cattle breeding into origo pastionis, dignitas, scientia , then in three steps separated by the framework action, sheep, goats, pigs, then cattle, donkeys, horses, finally mules, dogs, shepherds (with an appendix about milk, Cheese and wool industry) ".
Book 3: De pastione villatica
Framework story
The third part takes place in the year 50 BC. Again in Rome. Varro waits with the Senator Quintus Axius , the Augur Appius Claudius and some acquaintances for the outcome of the aedile election . The scene is emotional, attempted voting fraud is reported, Appius Claudius is asked to see the consul . Finally, everyone congratulates the chosen candidate.
content
In this book, the keeping of enclosures and farm animals is presented. The breeding of birds (peacocks, lovebirds, thrushes, geese, teal ducks, ducks, chickens), wild animals (boars, deer, hares), freshwater and saltwater fish, dormice, snails, bees is described. Two different aspects are important here. On the one hand, these animals serve to entertain the landlord and his guests and also to gain prestige. In this context, Varro describes his aviary in detail. But you have to beware of exaggeration. The landowner who is not satisfied with a freshwater pond but wants to breed (and eat) marine fish is called a minthon , a snob. On the other hand, there is much talk of profit and money. In the vicinity of the city there is strong demand for these products: “Yes, and as far as the aviary that stands on this estate is concerned, I know that five thousand thrushes alone were sold at a price of three denarii, so that sixty thousand sesterces this part of the estate in the year in question ". Fish also bring money.
Impact history
Columella borrowed from Varro both details and the overall attitude of the transfiguration of peasant life. He takes many details especially from the book on Pastio villatica . Also Pliny the Elder has read Varro's books on agriculture and borrowed from it a lot. The authors of late antiquity preferred to invoke Columella rather than Varro.
In the Middle Ages, the plant experienced a second bloom. Pier de 'Crescenzi used it essentially in his work Opus ruralium commodorum , which he wrote 1304-1309.
Lore
The history of the manuscripts through which Varro's work is transmitted is extraordinarily complex. Collective manuscripts of Catos, Varros and Columella's agricultural works were copied several times during the Middle Ages, but were also lost again. A copy, the so-called Marcianus , was bequeathed to the library of the San Marco monastery in Florence by the Italian businessman and scientist Niccolò Niccoli . There it was copied several times before it disappeared in 1768 at the latest.
The Codex Latinus 6842 (A) was created as early as the late 12th or early 13th century. It is written on parchment and is kept in the Paris National Library. From this codex the copy Codex Laurentianus 51.3 was made on paper at the beginning of the 15th century. The paper Codex Laurentianus, Pluteo 51.4 , however, has the Marcianus as its source. These and many other versions are distorted by prescriptions and gaps, so that the original text is difficult to determine.
Text editing and translation
- M. Terenti Varronis Rerum rusticarum libri tres. Edited by Heinrich Keil , Georg Goetz . 2nd Edition. Teubner, Leipzig 1912.
- Marcus Terentius Varro: About agriculture . Ed., Introduced and explained by Dieter Flach . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 3-534-19069-6 .
literature
- Silke Diederich: Roman agricultural handbooks between specialist science, literature and ideology. De Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019954-3 .
- Dieter Flach: Introduction. In: Marcus Terentius Varro: About agriculture. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 3-534-19069-6 , pp. 1–31.
- Georg Goetz: Linguistic remarks on Varro de re rustica. In: Indogermanische Forschungen 31 (1912/13), pp. 298-308.
- Egon Maróti: The contemporary commodity-producing agriculture from the point of view of Varros. In: Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 18 (1970), pp. 105-136.
- Klaus Sallmann : Varro 1. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 5, Stuttgart 1975, Sp. 1131-1140.
- Kenneth D. White: Roman Agricultural Writers I: Varro and his Predecessors. In: Rise and Fall of the Roman World. Volume 1.4. De Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1973, ISBN 3-11-004570-2 , pp. 439-497.
Web links
- De re rustica (Latin and English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Varro, De re rustica 1, 1, 8-10.
- ↑ Varro, De re rustica 1, 2, 28.
- ↑ Varro, De re rustica 2, 1, 11.
- ↑ Varro, De re rustica 3, 12, 1.
- ^ Silke Diederich: Roman agricultural handbooks. Chapter 2.2.2.2: The framework actions .
- ^ Klaus Sallmann : Varro 1. In: Der Kleine Pauly (KlP). Volume 5, Stuttgart 1975, column 1136.
- ↑ Varro, De re rustica 1, 37, 1.
- ↑ Dieter Flach, Book 2, Introduction, Die Form
- ^ Klaus Sallmann: Varro 1. In: Der Kleine Pauly (KlP). Volume 5, Stuttgart 1975, column 1136.
- ↑ Varro, De re rustica 3, 5, 18.
- ↑ Varro, De re rustica 3, 4, 9-17.
- ↑ Varro, De re rustica 3, 3, 9.
- ↑ Varro, De re rustics 3, 2, 15.
- ↑ On the history of the impact: Dieter Flach, Varro, Book 2, Introduction, The Afterlife.
- ↑ Dieter Flach, Varro, Book 1, Introduction, The Handwritings.
- ↑ Dieter Flach, Varro, Book 3, Introduction, The Handwritings.