Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus Palladius

For other people named Palladius, see Palladius (disambiguation).

Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus Palladius, also known as Palladius Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus or most often just as Palladius, was a Roman writer, dated variously to the latter 4th century or first half of the 5th century AD.[1] He is principally known for his book on agriculture, Opus agriculturae, sometimes known as De re rustica.

Biography

Since the Middle Ages, the author of the agricultural treatise has been referred to most often as Palladius. The Palladii were a prominent Gallic family, and the name Palladius is probably a family name, with Aemilianus his cognomen. In Late Antiquity, the convention of the tria nomina ("three names") for Roman men was no longer standard, and the greater variation in naming practice contributes to the uncertainty over the correct order of his names.[2] Evidence for his life is scant. Manuscripts of his work call him a vir inlustris. Although Palladius relies heavily on earlier agricultural writers, mainly Columella and Gargilius Martialis, he also seems to have some first-hand knowledge of farming in Italy and Sardinia as well as experience as a landowner.[3]

Opus agriculturae

The Opus agriculturae is a treatise on farming in 14 parts or books, written in the late fourth or early fifth century AD.[4] The first book is general and introductory. Books 2 to 13 give detailed instructions for the typical activities on a Roman farm for each month of the year, starting with January. The fourteenth book, De Veterinaria Medicina, was rediscovered only in the 20th century, and gives instructions for the care of animals and elements of veterinary science.[4] Most of the work is in prose, but the final part, formerly considered to be book 14, De Insitione, on Grafting, consists of eighty-five couplets of elegiac verse.[5]

The agricultural writings of Palladius may be compared to those of Marcus Priscus Cato, Marcus Terentius Varro and particularly Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, whose De re rustica appears to have served as a model for Palladius,[4] to such an extent that the Opus agriculturae has been described as an "abridgement" of Columella.[6]

The work of Palladius was well known in the Middle Ages. A translation into Middle English verse survives from about 1420, entitled On Husbondrie;[7] it can be seen as part of a genre of instructional agricultural writing that was to develop in England into works such as those of Thomas Tusser and Gervase Markham. Two notable thirteenth century works that draw on Palladius are the Commoda ruralia of Petrus de Crescentius, written c. 1305 and printed at Augsburg in 1471; and the Speculum Maius of Vincentius Bellovacensis (Vincent de Beauvais) written about 1250 and first printed in Strasbourg in 1473–76.[8] There are a number of other incunabula or early editions.

Water-mills

The sixteen overshot wheels at Barbegal are considered the largest ancient mill complex. Their capacity was sufficient to feed the whole nearby city of Arles

The book is known for reference to a water-mill in Chapter 1, section 42, where Palladius suggests that waste water from an aqueduct should be used to drive a mill. Such mills had been described by Vitruvius in 25 BC, and there is a growing number of examples of such Roman water-mills. The most spectacular is the set of 16 mills at Barbegal in southern France, using water fed by a stone aqueduct along the line of the same aqueduct which supplied nearby Arles.

Principal early editions

The earliest editions of Palladius group his works with those on agriculture of Cato the Elder, Varro and Columella. Some modern library catalogues follow Brunet in listing these under "Rei rusticae scriptores" or "Scriptores rei rusticae".[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Robert Browning, "Minor Figures," in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature (Cambridge University Press, 1982), vol. 2, p. 89.
  2. ↑ Alan Cameron, "Polyonomy in the Late Roman Aristocracy: The Case of Petronius Probus," Journal of Roman Studies 75 (1985), pp. 173–174, citing PLRE II, nos. 4 and 13–15.
  3. ↑ R.H. Rodgers, "The Moore Palladius," Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 5.3 (1971), p. 203; Browning, "Minor Figures," CHCL, vol. 2, p. 89.
  4. 1 2 3 Browning, Robert (1982). "Learning and the Past". In Easterling, P. E.; Kenney, E. J.; Knox, B. M. W.; Clausen, W. V. The Cambridge History of Classical Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 771. ISBN 0521210437. Retrieved July 2013.
  5. ↑ Smith, Sir William (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood (2nd ed.). Boston; London: C. Little, and J. Brown. p. 98, vol. 3. Retrieved May 2011.
  6. ↑ Anthon, Charles (1841). A classical dictionary: containing an account of the principal proper names mentioned in ancient authors, and intended to elucidate all the important points connected with the geography, history, biography, mythology, and fine arts of the Greeks and Romans. Together with an account of coins, weights, and measures, with tabular values of the same. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 366. Retrieved June 2011.
  7. ↑ Barton Lodge, Sidney J.H. Herrtage (eds.) (1873; 1879). Palladius on Husbondrie: edited from the unique MS. of about 1420 AD in Colchester Castle. London: for the Early English Text Society, N. Trübner & Co.
  8. ↑ Eschenburg, Johann Joachim, Nathan Welby Fiske (1839). Manual of classical literature (3rd ed.). Frederick W. Greenough. Retrieved June 2011. (Eschenburg cites the Speculum Historiale of Vincentius)
  9. ↑ Brunet, Jacques-Charles (1843). Manuel du Libraire et de l'Amateur de Livres, vol 4., R–Z (in French) (4th ed.). Paris: Silvestre. p. 238. Retrieved May 2011.

Further reading

External links

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