INTRODUCTION 



All the manuscripts listed above were known and 

 used by I>undstrom in his editions of Kes Rnstica, 

 Books I-II,VI-VII, X-XI, and De Arbor ibus, and their 

 readings are given in his apparatus criiicus.^ Those 

 to which he and others have attached greatest im- 

 portance,^ especially S, A, a, b, c, d, were collated by 

 him or by his associates, Langlet and Stroemberg, 

 with particular care. His readings of less important 

 codices are given with correspondingly less fullness. 

 More than half of the total number of manuscripts 

 were evaluated and collated by Haussner for his 

 edition of Book X, De Cultu Hortorum.^ The present 

 translator has examined a number of the best 

 manuscripts in their respective libraries, and has 

 collated S, A, a, c with Schneider's text for Books 

 III-V, VIII-IX, and XII. In addition he has com- 

 pared with the texts and apparatuses of Lundstrom 

 and of Schneider the readings oi Morganensis 138,olini 

 Haviiltonensis 184 (= M),a beautiful piece of Roman 

 writing signed and dated by Henriettus Rufinus de 

 Murialdo in the year 1469 and now in possession 

 of The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City. 



That the two oldest manuscripts, S and A, are 

 derived from the same archetype is generally agreed 

 It is more difficult, however, to determine the re- 



^ See p. XX, n. 1. The recent edition of Books VI-VII 

 includes readings of ten additional MSS. of the R family, and 

 of three MSS. of the 11th and 14th centuries containing 

 excerpts from these books. 



^ Lundstrom rates a, b, c, d, m, q, s as best of the fifteenth- 

 century class. Cf. his " P]in Columella-Excerptor aus dem 

 15. Jahrhundert," Skrijler utgifna af Humanintiska Vetens- 

 kapssamfundet i Upsala (Upsala, 1894), III. 6. 11; and L. 

 luni Moderali Columellae opera quae exstant, fasc. 1 (Upsala, 

 1897), Praef. viii-x. » See p. xxi, n. 1. 



