Natural History in the Royal Library
Our changing relationship with the natural world, from Tudor to Victorian times
Ruralia Commoda
c.1490-5RCIN 1057436
This book, written around 1305, provides an overview of medieval agriculture and gives instructions to its readers on how to plant a garden. It became one of the first bestsellers in history, going through multiple editions, and was published in several different languages. This copy, printed in the 1490s, was once in the library of Henry VIII at Whitehall Palace in London.
annotation: brief signposts, small diagrams and maniculae in ?three hands; two in English ('elder' f.70r, same hand as f.49v and f.1 and the hand writing the list of books on f.1v, which at f.122v writes: "This excellent order...of ytali about Parma" referring to cows), the last one is Rawson's (e.g. ff.56r, 64v) [ff. 3r-v, 4v, 21r-v, 48r-49v, 56r, 58r, 64r-v, 67v-70v, 72r-v, 90r, 107r, 121r-v, 122v 123r]
