BUSSATO, Marco.

Good copy of the fourth, enlarged and most complete edition of this successful work on horticulture. Born in Ravenna, Marco Bussato (or Bussati, fl.1570-1600) led an obscure life, working as an itinerant expert of arboreal grafting in the countryside of the Romagna region. A manual based on his experience, Giardino d agricoltura presented horticulture as an art of which its readers would learn the fine secrets . The focus is on the growth of fruit trees, with a few excursions into the cultivation of cereals, the production of wine, breeding pigeons, and other country activities. After discussing the planting, pruning and grafting of sundry kinds of plants in orchards and gardens as well as the tricks of the trade, Bussato provides a lunario perpetuo or almanac subdividing horticultural activities according to the phases of the moon during the month in which they should be carried out. The handsome woodcuts are the same as in previous editions, some re-cut after those originally prepared for the first edition published under a different title in Ravenna in 1578.