INTRODUCTION 



versified treatise on gardening.^ He is praised in 

 the sixteenth century in an epigram of Theodore 

 Beza ; ^ and in the next century Milton, in his short 

 treatise On Educatioji, would have the students of 

 his ideal school devote their thoughts, " after evening 

 repast till bed-time," first to the Scriptures and next 

 to " the authors of agriculture, Cato, Varro, and 

 Columella, for the matter is easy ; and if the language 

 is difficult, so much the better." " Here," he adds, 

 " will be an occasion of inciting and enabling them 

 hereafter to improve the tillage of their country, to 

 recover bad soil," etc. 



Manuscripts and Editions 



The manuscripts of Columella fall into two groups. 

 Oldest and best are : 



Cod. Sangermanensis Petropolitanus 207, now CI. 

 L. F. V. N. 1 (= S), fol. 138, 9th cent., in the State 

 Library at Leningrad. Written apparently at 

 Corbie, and taken with a large collection of Corbie 

 manuscripts to the Abbey of St. Germain des Pres 

 in Paris during the first half of the seventeenth 

 century. Removed, with many other valuable 

 manuscripts, during the French Revolution by the 

 Russian envoy Dubrowsky to the Imperial Library 

 in Petrograd. 



Cod. Ambromanus L85 sup. (= A), fol. 252, 9th-10th 



* Cf. V. Lundstrom, " Walahfrid Strabus och Columella," 

 Eranos XXX. 124-127 ; M.Manitius in Philologus XLVIII. 566. 

 ^ Orphea mirata est Rhodope sua fata canentera. 

 Si modo Vergilii carmina pondus habent. 

 Tu vero, Tuni, silvestris rura canendo 



Post te ipsas urbes in tua rura trahia. 

 O superi, quales habuit tunc Roma Quirites, 

 Quum tarn iucundum cerneret agricolam. 



