Agricultura de Iardines, que trata de la manera que se ha de criar, gouernar, y conservar las plantas.
Madrid: Por P[edro]. Madrigal, 1592 and, 1597.
Price: $28,500.00
Octavo: 15.5 x 10 cm. [8], 127, [1] f. ; [8], 132-220, [5] f. Collation: ¶8, A-Q8 (Q8 blank and present); ¶8, R-Z8, Aa-Ee8. Complete.
FIRST EDITIONS OF BOTH PARTS.
Bound in contemporary limp vellum with rawhide ties, (binding re-cased but original), lightly soiled, spine lettered in ink, end-papers renewed. Very nice copies of both volumes with occasional mild foxing or light toning, and scattered light stains. Contemporary inscription to title. Complete with the final blank in part 1.
First edition, very rare, with the extremely rare second part (published in 1597) of the first original Spanish work on gardening, written by Gregorio de los Ríos, King Philip II’s royal gardener. Although other botanical works had been written in Spanish (Acosta, Herrera, and Monardes), none had focused specifically on gardening. As the author himself points out in the introduction, he is the first to do so: ‘jamás han tocado este particular de la población de los jardines [...] podré decir con razón ser yo el primero de esta materia.’
Among the plants described are sixteen New World varieties that the author cultivated in the king’s Madrid garden, La Casa de Campo. [For more on these American plants, see “New World plants in an Old World Garden” below.]
I locate only 2 copies of the first part only in the U.S.: Hunt Collection at Carnegie Mellon Univ., and Hispanic Society of America (Penney, 471). OCLC and KVK locate a handful of complete copies worldwide.
Ríos is concerned with the ornamental garden, as opposed to vegetable gardens and orchards (though he does, of course, include edible plants) or the scientific botanical garden. The plants described by Ríos are chosen for their ability to delight the senses, that is, for their color, size, the texture of foliage, and their fragrance. There are long sections on orange trees (while Ríos felt that fruit trees were proper to orchards and not gardens, he made an exception for the orange tree, due to its perfume and color), on vines, and on the care of nightingales, of which the king himself was quite fond. The nightingales’ presence in the garden adds yet another aesthetic element: their song, which delights the ear just as the plants delight the other senses (sight, smell, taste).
Ríos addresses both gardeners and garden owners, writing in a plain and direct style (in Castilian, rather than Latin), and praises gardening for its physical and spiritual benefits. Ríos uses the common names of the plants (rather than their scientific ones) because he is writing for gardeners, not botanists, “Y por esta causa las nombraré por los nombres comunes que todos los jardineros saben y ellos como modernos les han puesto”. Were he to use the botanists’ nomenclature, his audience would not be able to identify the plants, “porque si las nombrase como las pone Matiolo y los herbarios, dirán que no las conocen ni tales plantas han visto, que ellos no saben latín para poderlas conocer por la orden de los herbarios.”
Volume one begins with Ríos’ philosophy of gardening and practical instructions for both the gardener and the garden owner. Next follows an account of over 200 flowering plants, herbs, vines, and shrubs; as well as a selection of ornamental trees appropriate to a garden (chief among them orange trees). The plants are discussed alphabetically, with descriptions of their characteristics, including their fragrance, and directions for their cultivation. Volume two, possibly written as early as 1593 but not published until 1597, is concerned with the planting and care of the greater trees (olives, cherries, chestnuts, figs, etc.). Ríos explains that, since he has found that so many people are interested in these types of trees, and given that he has experience with them, he has decided to write this second volume.
Ríos encourages landowners to hire true gardeners, who have the knowledge necessary to tend and preserve a garden, rather than unskilled day laborers (who, in their ignorance, are likely to destroy plants). Ríos advises his readers to pay attention to climate and soil conditions when choosing plants for the garden; for each plant he gives notes on its water requirements, and sometimes on its tolerance of heat and cold. Ríos also provides instructions for amending soil.
Ríos discusses garden design and yet he stresses that the planning, planting, and tending of the garden should not be left to the landscape architects (traçadores), since, according to the author, “there are many designers, but that doesn’t mean they know how to take care of a garden.”(f. 245) The garden should be enclosed, to prevent the incursion of animals, plants, or ignorant people who might harm it.
[Some of the foregoing has been adapted or translated from Carmen Añon Feliu’s bibliographical entry for Ríos, in Diccionario Biográfico de la Real Academia de la Historia, https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/19952/gregorio-de-los-rios]
Philip II, King of Spain took an intense interest in gardening and commissioned the creation of magnificent gardens to rival those of other European powers like France and Italy; “Philip II (1527-98) was the first Spanish king to show a great interest in garden design and promoted the creation of a number of royal sites at El Escorial (1563-94), La Casa de Campo, etc. … For almost seven years (1548-55) Philip travelled in Europe and took notes of the gardens he visited. He then employed the best artists to create his gardens, including Italian sculptors for fountains, Dutch experts for water basins, and gardeners from the Netherlands, Italy and France. In the Alhambra (Granada) and royal palaces of southern Spain he employed Muslim gardeners. Trees and plants were imported from Europe and different regions of Spain, and seeds from the colonies of New Spain.” (Patrizia Granziera, The art of gardening in New Spain: Spanish heritage in Mexican gardens, Garden History, vol. 42, no. 2, The Garden History Society, 2014, pp. 178–200).
New World plants in an Old World Garden:
Ríos describes at least sixteen plants brought from the Americas, including some edible ones, among them tabasco chili peppers (for their ornamental color), sunflowers (so-called “porque el sol va bolviendo la flor a sí”), agave, nasturtium (good in salad), balloon vine (for decorating windows), wild canna lily, tobacco, tomatoes (“dizen son buenos para salsa”), and common beans (raise them in pots so that snails and slugs don’t eat them). Ríos uses neither the Latin names given to these plants by the European botanists nor their indigenous names but he does use some New World descriptors. For a full account, with identifications of each plant, see Juan Antonio Frago Gracia, “El Americanismo Léxico en la ‘Agricultura de Jardines’”, Boletín de la Real Academia Española, LXXXIII, Cuaderno CCLXXXVII (2003), pp. 37-49.
“While not a very long list, it is interesting. First of all, because Ríos’ descriptions reflect his familiarity with these plants, not just a scholarly knowledge of them. And also because he describes a group of American plants that had been acclimatized to a very specific place, Philip II’s royal garden in Madrid’s Casa de Campo.”(Frago Gracia)
See also Cristina Castel-Branco and Jose Tito Rojo “The Epoch of Philip II: Botanical and Horticultural Impact”.
Palau 268481; Pérez Pastor, Bibliografía madrileña 395; Miltitz, Bibliotheca Botanica col. 285