Columella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella was a Roman writer on agriculture in the Roman Empire. His De re rustica in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on Roman agriculture and cuisine, together with the works of Cato the Elder and Marcus Terentius Varro, both of which he occasionally cites. A smaller book on trees, De arboribus, is usually attributed to him.
Also recorded as Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella · Lucius Columella · Lucius Kolumella · Lucius Iunius Moderatus Columella
Columella
Jean de Tournes · Original: Jean de Tournes, Insignium aliquot virorum icones. Lugduni: Apud Ioan. Tornaesium 1559 · Public domain
- Name
- Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella
- Born
- 4 AD
- Birthplace
- Gades, Hispania Baetica
- Died
- c. 70 AD
- Nationality
- Ancient Rome.
- Occupation
- writer and poet.
- Languages
- Latin.
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gnd · 104310863 · wikidata · Q318317 · wikipedia · Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella
In this article
Biography
Biography
In 1794 the Spanish botanists José Antonio Pavón Jiménez and Hipólito Ruiz López named a genus of Peruvian asterid Columellia in his honour.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella • Born — 4 AD • Birthplace — Gades, Hispania Baetica • Died — c. 70 AD • Citizenship — Roman • Notable Works — De re rustica • Illustration — Statue of Columella, holding a sickle and an ox-yoke, in the Plaza de las Flores, Cádiz
Life
Life
Little is known of Columella's life. He was probably born in Gades, Hispania Baetica (modern Cádiz). After a career in the army (he was tribune in Syria in 35 AD), he turned to farming his estates at Ardea, Carseoli, and Alba in Latium.
Works
Works
De Re Rustica
De re rustica
De re rustica
In ancient times, Columella's work "appears to have been but little read", cited only by Pliny the Elder, Servius, Cassiodorus, and Isidorus, and having fallen "into almost complete neglect" after Palladius published an abridgement of it. This book is presented as advice to a certain Publius Silvinus. Previously known only in fragments, the complete book was among those discovered in monastery libraries in Switzerland and France by Poggio Bracciolini and his assistant Bartolomeo di Montepulciano during the Council of Constance, between 1414 and 1418. Structure of De re rustica ("On Agriculture"): • soils • viticulture • fruits • olive trees • big animals: cattle, horses and mules • small animals: asses, sheep, goats, pigs, dogs • fish and fowl: chickens, doves, thrushes, peacocks, Numidian chicken and guineafowl, geese, ducks, fish ponds • wild animals: enclosures for wild animals, beekeeping, production of honey and wax • gardens • personnel management • calendars • household management Book 10 is written entirely in dactylic hexameter verse, in imitation of, or homage to, Virgil. It may initially have been intended to be the concluding volume, books 11 and 12 being perhaps an addition to the original scheme. A complete, but anonymous, translation into English was published by Andrew Millar in 1745. Excerpts had previously been translated by Richard Bradley.
De arboribus
De arboribus
• Illustration — De re rustica, 1564 The short work De arboribus, "On Trees", is in manuscripts and early editions of Columella considered as book 3 of De re rustica. However, it is clear from the opening sentences that it is part of a separate and possibly earlier work. As the anonymous translator of the Millar edition notes, in De arboribus there is no mention of the Publius Silvinus to whom the De re rustica is addressed. A critical edition of the Latin text of the De re rustica includes it, but as incerti auctoris, by an unknown hand. Cassiodorus mentions sixteen books of Columella, which has led to the suggestion that De arboribus formed part of a work in four volumes.
Places
Named by the record
Places
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Cádiz.
Birth place
Taranto.
Death place
Editions
The earliest editions of Columella group his works with those on agriculture of Cato the Elder, Varro and Palladius. Some modern library catalogues follow Brunet in listing these under "Rei rusticae scriptores" or "Scriptores rei rusticae". • Iunii Moderati Columellae hortulus [Rome: Printer of Silius Italicus, c. 1471] (book X only) • Georgius Merula, Franciscus Colucia (eds.) De re rustica Opera et impensa Nicolai Ienson: Venetiis, 1472. • Lucii Iunii Moderati Columellae de Cultu hortorum Liber.xi. quem.Pub. Virgilius.M. i[n] Georgicis Posteris edendum dimisit. [Padova]: D[ominicus] S[iliprandus], [ca. 1480] • Opera Agricolationum: Columellæ: Varronis: Catonisque: nec non Palladii: cū excriptionibus.D. Philippi Beroaldi: & commentariis quæ in aliis impressionibus non extāt. Impensis Benedicti hectoris: Bonon., xiii. calen. octob. [19 Sept.], 1494 • Beroaldo, Filippo "il vecchio" Oratio de felicitate habita in enarratione Georgicon Virgilii et Columellae Bononiae: per Ioannemantonium De Benedictis, 1507 • Lucii Junii moderati Columell[ae] de cultu hortorum carme[n]: Necno[n] [et] Palladius de arboru[m] insitione una cu[m] Nicolai Barptholomaei Lochensis hortulo. Parisiis: Venundantur parisiis in aedibus Radulphi Laliseau [printed by Jean Marchant], [1512] (poetry sections only) • Columella, Lucius Iunius Moderatus Columella De cultu ortorum. Interprete Pio Bononiensi. Impressum Bononiae: a Hieronymo de Benedictis bibliopola et calcographo, 1520 mense Augusto • Libri De Re Rustica...Additis Nuper Commentariis Iunii Pompo. Fortunati in Librum De Cultu Hortorum, Cum Adnotationibus Philippi Beroaldi... Florence: Filippo Giunta, 1521 • De re rustica libri XII. Euisdem de Arboris liber, separatus ab aliis. Lyon, Sébastien Gryphe, 1541 • Columella, Lucius Iunius Moderatus De l'agricoltura libri XII. / Lutio Giunio Moderato Columella. Trattato de gli alberi, tradotto nuouamente di latino in lingua italiana per Pietro Lauro Modonese In Venetia: [Michele Tramezzino il vecchio], 1544 • Les Douze livres des choses rustiques. Traduicts de Latin en François, par feu maistre Claude Cotereau Chanoine de Paris. La traduction duquel ha esté soingneusement reveue & en la plupart corrigée, & illustrée de doctes annotations par maistre Jean Thierry de Beauvoisis Paris: Jacques Kerver, 1551, 1555 • Columella, Lucius Junius Moderatus Les douze liures... des choses rustiques, tr. par C. Cotereau. La tr. corrigée & illustrée de doctes annotations par J. Thiery de Beauoisis Paris, 1555 • Columella, Lucius Iunius Moderatus Lutio Giunio Moderato Columella De l'agricoltura libri XII. Trattato de gli alberi del medesimo, tradotto nuouamente di latino in lingua italiana per Pietro Lauro modonese. In Venetia: per Geronimo Caualcalouo, 1559 • Reprinted: In Venetia: appresso Nicolò Beuilacqua, 1564 • Orsini, Fulvio Notae ad M. Catonem, M. Varronem, L. Columellam de re rustica. Ad kalend. rusticum Farnesianum & veteres inscriptiones Fratrum Arvalium. Iunius Philargyrius in Bucolica & Georgica Virgilij. Notae ad Servium in Bucol. Georg. & Aeneid. Virg. Velius Longus de orthographia: ex bibliotheca Fulvi Ursini Romae: in aedib. S.P.Q.R. apud Georgium Ferrarium, 1587 • Bradley, Richard A Survey of the Ancient Husbandry and Gardening collected from Cato, Varro, Columella, Virgil, and others, the most eminent writers among the Greeks & Romans: wherein many of the most difficult passages in those authors are explain'd... Adorn'd with cuts, etc. London: B. Motte, 1725 • Gesner, Johann Matthias (ed.) Scriptores Rei Rusticae veteres Latini Cato, Varro, Columella, Palladius, quibus nunc accedit Vegetius de Mulo-Medicina et Gargilii Martialis fragmentum (Ausoni Popinæ De instrumento fundi liber. J. B. Morgagni epist. IV.) cum editionibus prope omnibus et MSS. pluribus collati: adjectae notae virorum clariss, integræ... et lexicon Rei Rusticae curante Io. Matthia Gesnero Lipsiae: sumtibus Caspari Fritsch, 1735 (full text) • Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (trans. Anon.) L. Junius Moderatus Columella of Husbandry, in Twelve Books: and his book, concerning Trees. Translated into English, with illustrations from Pliny, Cato, Varro, Palladius and other ancient and modern authors London: A. Millar, 1745
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q318317: Columella
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 104310863, Columella, Gerardus.
General reference · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, revision 1371735746 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Joseph Fr. Michaud, Eugène Ernest Desplaces, Louis Gabriel Michaud (1854). Biographie universelle (Michaud) ancienne et moderne ... (in French). Paris: Madame C. Desplaces. Volume 8, page 668. Accessed June 2011.
- 2.William Shepherd (1802). The life of Poggio Bracciolini. London; Liverpool: T. Cadell, Jun., & W. Davies. pp. iv, 487.
- 3.R. H. Rodgers (editor) (2010). L. Iuni Moderati Columellae Res rustica. Incerti auctoris Liber de arboribus (in Latin). Oxonii [Oxford, England]: E Typographeo Clarendoniano. . Accessed June 2011.
- 4.Denis Diderot, Jean Le Rond d' Alembert (editors) (1765). [ Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers ...] (in French). Neufchatel: S. Faulche. Volume 9 JU–MAM, page 179. Accessed June 2011.
- 5."De re rustica (English translation) III.9.2". Loeb Classical Library edition, 1941. Accessed June 2011.
- 6.Jacques-Charles Brunet (1843). Manuel du libraire et de l'amateur de livres, fourth edition (in French). Paris: Silvestre. Volume 4, R–Zp, page 238. Accessed May 2011.
- 7.Richard Bradley (1725). A Survey of the Ancient Husbandry and Gardening collected from Cato, Varro, Columella, Virgil, and others, the most eminent writers among the Greeks & Romans: wherein many of the most difficult passages in those authors are explain'd ... Adorn'd with cuts, etc.. London: B. Motte.
- 8.Thomas F. Glick, Steven Livesey, Faith Wallis (editors) (2014). Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: an Encyclopedia. London; New York: Routledge. .
- 9.Katharine T. von Stackelberg (2012). Columella. In: Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine, Sabine R. Huebner (editors) (2013). The Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. (print), 9781444338386 online. .
- 10.E.J. Kenney, W.V. Clausen (editors) (1982). The Cambridge history of classical literature, volume 2: Latin literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. , page 669.
- 11.[anonymous translator] (1745). L. Junius Moderatus Columella of Husbandry, in Twelve Books: and his book, concerning Trees. Translated into English, with illustrations from Pliny, Cato, Varro, Palladius and other ancient and modern authors. London: Andrew Millar.
- 12.Silke Diederich (2016). Columella. Oxford Bibliographies Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. .
- 13.Fulvio Orsini (1587). Notae ad M. Catonem, M. Varronem, L. Columellam de re rustica. Ad kalend. rusticum Farnesianum & veteres inscriptiones Fratrum Arvalium. Iunius Philargyrius in Bucolica & Georgica Virgilij. Notae ad Servium in Bucol. Georg. & Aeneid. Virg. Velius Longus de orthographia : ex bibliotheca Fulvi Ursini. Romae: in aedib. S.P.Q.R.: apud Georgium Ferrarium. Full text online at Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, two copies: 1, 2.
- 14.Harry Thurston Peck (editor) (1896). "Columella, L. Iunius Moderātus". Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.
- 15.[Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge] (1837). Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. C. Knight. volumes 7–8, page 380. Accessed June 2011.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 12
- Baldwin, Barry. 1963. "Columella's Sources and How He Used Them." Latomus 22:785–791.
- Bertoni, D. 2017. "Geometry and Genre in Columella". American Journal of Philology. 138.3: 527-554.
- Carandini, Andrea. 1983. "Columella's Vineyard and the Rationality of the Roman Economy." Opus 2:177–204.
- Carroll, Peter D. 1976. "Columella the Reformer." Latomus 35:783–790.
- Doody, Aude. 2007. "Virgil the Farmer? Critiques of the Georgics in Columella and Pliny." Classical Philology. 102.2: 180-197.
- Dumont, Jean Christian. 2008. "Columella and Vergil." Vergilius 54:49–59.
- Forster, E. S. 1950. "Columella and His Latin Treatise on Agriculture." Greece and Rome 19:123–128.
- Gowers, Emily. 2000. "Vegetable Love: Virgil, Columella, and Garden Poetry." Ramus 29:127–148.
- Henderson, John. 2002. "Columella's Living Hedge: the Roman Gardening Book." The Journal of Roman Studies 92: 110-133.
- Mielke, Lars. 2024. Spaliere für Silvinus: Charakterschulung in Columellas Werk über die Landwirtschaft. Hypomnemata, vol. 219. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, (Review by James L. Zainaldin at Bryn Mawr Classical Review).
- Olson, L. 1943. "Columella and the Beginning of Soil Science." Agricultural History 17:65–72.
- Requejo, A. Columella's Georgics: Form, Method, Intertextuality, Ideology. U.W. Seattle. 2017.
References
Citations
References
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authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 104310863, Columella, Gerardus.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Secondary witnessreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q318317: ColumellaWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
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Died at
1- TarantoPlace
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Open the remaining particulars
The authorities additionally record the headings Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, Lucius Columella, Lucius Kolumella, Lucius Iunius Moderatus Columella and L. Iunius Moderatus Columella. His recorded language was Latin.
Identity and origins
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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