Columella Explained

Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella
Birth Date:4 AD
Birth Place:Gades, Hispania Baetica
Citizenship:Roman
Notableworks:De re rustica

Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (Arabic:) was a prominent Roman writer on agriculture in the Roman Empire.

His Latin: De re rustica in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture, together with the works of Cato the Elder and Marcus Terentius Varro, both of which he occasionally cites. A smaller book on trees, Latin: De arboribus, is usually attributed to him.

In 1794 the Spanish botanists José Antonio Pavón Jiménez and Hipólito Ruiz López named a genus of Peruvian asterid Columellia in his honour.

Life

Little is known of Columella's life. He was probably born in Gades, Hispania Baetica (modern Cádiz), possibly to Roman parents. After a career in the army (he was tribune in Syria in 35 AD), he turned to farming his estates at Ardea, Carseoli, and Alba in Latium.

Works

De re rustica

In ancient times, Columella's work "appears to have been but little read", cited only by Pliny the Elder, Servius, Cassiodorus, and Isidorus, and having fallen "into almost complete neglect" after Palladius published an abridgement of it.

This book is presented as advice to a certain Publius Silvinus. Previously known only in fragments, the complete book was among those discovered in monastery libraries in Switzerland and France by Poggio Bracciolini and his assistant Bartolomeo di Montepulciano during the Council of Constance, between 1414 and 1418.

Structure of Latin: De re rustica ("On Agriculture"):

Book 10 is written entirely in dactylic hexameter verse, in imitation of, or homage to, Virgil. It may initially have been intended to be the concluding volume, books 11 and 12 being perhaps an addition to the original scheme.

A complete, but anonymous, translation into English was published by Andrew Millar in 1745. Excerpts had previously been translated by Richard Bradley.

De arboribus

The short work , "On Trees", is in manuscripts and early editions of Columella considered as book 3 of . However, it is clear from the opening sentences that it is part of a separate and possibly earlier work. As the anonymous translator of the Millar edition notes, in there is no mention of the Publius Silvinus to whom the is addressed. A recent critical edition of the Latin text of the includes it, but as , by an unknown hand. Cassiodorus mentions sixteen books of Columella, which has led to the suggestion that formed part of a work in four volumes.

Sources

In addition to Cato the Elder and Varro, Columella used many sources that are no longer extant and for which he is one of the few references. These include works by Aulus Cornelius Celsus, the Carthaginian writer Mago, Tremellius Scrofa, and many Greek sources. His uncle Marcus Columella, "a clever man and an exceptional farmer" (VII.2.30), had conducted experiments in sheep breeding, crossing colourful wild rams, introduced from Africa for gladiatorial games, with domestic sheep, and may have influenced his nephew's interests. Columella owned farms in Italy; he refers specifically to estates at Ardea, Carseoli, and Alba, and speaks repeatedly of his own practical experience in agriculture.

Editions

The earliest editions of Columella group his works with those on agriculture of Cato the Elder, Varro and Palladius. Some modern library catalogues follow Brunet in listing these under "" or "".

Further reading

External links

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