New Acquisition: the first printed edition of Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum (1554)

speccoll
Friday 6 July 2012

The summer is a busy time of year for new acquisitions here at St Andrews. As our fiscal year winds down and extra money is found and needed to be spent, some items on our wish-lists can be ticked off. We’ll be highlighting some of our newest purchases and gifts in the next few months, and hope that these items get the attention and use they deserve!

Pages 134-135 of the first edition of the Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum (1554), with an inserted, extra illustration.
The front cover of TypFP.B54TC, its original 16th century binding survives.

The Rare Book Collection recently added the first edition of Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum to its shelves.  The text is one of the few surviving works collecting surveying techniques of the Roman gromatics. It survives in one 5th or 6th century illuminated manuscript, held at the Herzog August Bibliothek (Wolfenbüttel). This 16th century printing, the first of this collected work, was edited by Pierre Galland and Adrien Turnèbe (also the printer), and contains tracts by Siculus Flaccus, Frontinus, Sextus Julius, Aggenus Urbicus and Hyginus, Gromaticus.

Pages 126-127 of the first edition of the Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum (1554), depicting different types of grids for surveying.

The work is illustrated throughout with 134 individual woodcuts depicting boundary stones, properties, cities, roads, rivers and swamps. They show areas to be surveyed from a bird’s-eye view on which elements such as mountains or buildings or rivers are shown receding into space. This type of perspective drawing is called scaenographia or “scene drawing” by Vitruvius used varying viewpoints to depict accurate scale.

Pages 240-241 of the first edition of Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum (1554), depicting boundary stones and markers.

This book is a lovely new addition to our early print collections, and will provide a useful resource for students and researchers working in classics, archaeology, history and physics. Many thanks to Roger Gaskell Rare Books, and his wonderful catalogue 47, for making this item available!

DG

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2 thoughts on "New Acquisition: the first printed edition of Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum (1554)"

  • bibliodeviant
    bibliodeviant
    Monday 16 July 2012, 12.49pm

    Reblogged this on Shelf Fulfillment and commented: Ooh! Aah! and similar firework related noises of awe...

    Reply
  • Rohit
    Rohit
    Monday 24 February 2014, 2.33pm

    ok guys, check this out : land surveying was once clearly recognized as a learned profession - Agrimensorum Romanorum See more at: http://www.profsurv.com/magazine/article.aspx?i=71004#sthash.8qBNS4wU.dpufCorpus

    Reply

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