View source for Columella

{{Short description|1st century AD Roman writer on agriculture}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use list-defined references|date=April 2013}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]]. --> 
| name          = Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella
| image         = Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella.jpg
| image_size    = 250px
| alt           = 
| caption       = Portrait of Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella by [[Jean de Tournes]] (''Insignium aliquot virorum icones'', [[Lyon]], 1559)
| pseudonym     = 
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    = 4 AD
| birth_place   = [[Cádiz|Gades]], [[Hispania Baetica]]
| death_date    = {{Circa|70 AD}}
| death_place   = 
| resting_place = 
| occupation    = 
| language      = 
| nationality   = 
| ethnicity     = 
| citizenship   = Roman
| notableworks  = ''De re rustica''
| influences    = 
| influenced    = 
}}

[[File:Columella.JPG|thumb|250px|Statue of Columella, holding a [[sickle]] and an [[yoke|ox-yoke]], in the Plaza de las Flores, [[Cádiz]]]]
'''Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|k|ɒ|l|j|ə|ˈ|m|ɛ|l|ə}}, [[Arabic]]: {{Transliteration|ar|Yunius}}{{r|glick|p=12}}) was a Roman writer on agriculture in the [[Roman Empire]].{{r|obo}}

His {{lang|la|De re rustica}} in twelve volumes has been completely preserved and forms an important source on [[Roman agriculture]] and [[ancient Roman cuisine|cuisine]], together with the works of [[Cato the Elder]] and [[Marcus Terentius Varro]], both of which he occasionally cites. A smaller book on trees, {{lang|la|De arboribus}}, is usually attributed to him.

In 1794 the Spanish botanists [[Ruiz y Pavón|José Antonio Pavón Jiménez and Hipólito Ruiz López]] named a genus of Peruvian [[asterids|asterid]] ''[[Columellia]]'' in his honour.<ref name=mich />

{{anchor|Biography|History}}

==Life==
Little is known of Columella's life. He was probably born in [[Cádiz|Gades]], [[Hispania Baetica]] (modern Cádiz), possibly to Roman parents. After a career in the army (he was [[tribune]] in [[Syria (Roman province)|Syria]] in 35 AD), he turned to farming his estates at [[Ardea, Lazio|Ardea]], [[Carsoli|Carseoli]], and [[Alba Longa|Alba]] in [[Latium]].{{r|kat}}

==Works==
{{anchor|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]], [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]], [[Cassiodorus]], and [[Isidore of Seville|Isidorus]], and having fallen "into almost complete neglect" after [[Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus Palladius|Palladius]] published an abridgement of it.{{r|peck|p=383}}

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.<ref name=shep />

Structure of {{lang|la|De re rustica}} ("On Agriculture"):
*[[Soil|soils]]
*[[viticulture]]
*[[Fruit|fruits]]
*[[Olive|olive trees]]
*big animals: [[cattle]], [[Horse|horses]] and [[Mule|mules]]
*small animals: [[Donkey|asses]], [[sheep]], [[Goat|goats]], [[Pig|pigs]], [[Dog|dogs]]
*fish and fowl: [[Chicken|chickens]], [[Columbidae|doves]], [[Thrush (bird)|thrushes]], [[Peafowl|peacocks]], Numidian chicken and [[guineafowl]], [[Goose|geese]], [[Duck|ducks]], [[Fish pond|fish ponds]]
*wild animals: enclosures for wild animals, [[beekeeping]], production of [[honey]] and [[wax]]
*[[Garden|gardens]]
*personnel management
*[[Calendar|calendars]]
*[[Housekeeping|household management]]

Book 10 is written entirely in [[Dactyl (poetry)|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.{{r|kenney}}

A complete, but anonymous, translation into English was published by [[Andrew Millar]] in 1745.{{r|millar}} Excerpts had previously been translated by [[Richard Bradley (botanist)|Richard Bradley]].{{r|bradley}}

===''De arboribus''===
[[File:De re rustica.tif|thumb|''De re rustica'', 1564]]
The short work ''{{Lang|la|De arboribus}}'', "On Trees", is in manuscripts and early editions of Columella considered as book 3 of ''{{Lang|la|De re rustica}}''.{{r|penny}} 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 ''{{Lang|la|De arboribus}}'' there is no mention of the Publius Silvinus to whom the ''{{Lang|la|De re rustica}}'' is addressed.{{r|millar|page=571}} A recent critical edition of the Latin text of the ''{{Lang|la|De re rustica}}'' includes it, but as ''{{Lang|la|incerti auctoris}}'', by an unknown hand.<ref name=rodgers /> [[Cassiodorus]] mentions sixteen books of Columella, which has led to the suggestion that ''{{Lang|la|De arboribus}}'' formed part of a work in four volumes.{{r|penny}}

===Sources===
In addition to Cato the Elder and Varro, Columella used many sources that are no longer extant and for which he is one of the few references. These include works by [[Aulus Cornelius Celsus]], the [[Carthage|Carthaginian]] writer [[Mago (agricultural writer)|Mago]], [[Tremellius Scrofa]], and many [[ancient Greece|Greek]] sources. His uncle Marcus Columella, "a clever man and an exceptional farmer" (VII.2.30), had conducted experiments in [[Sheep farming|sheep breeding]], crossing colourful wild rams, introduced from Africa for gladiatorial games, with domestic sheep,<ref name=enc /> and may have influenced his nephew's interests. Columella owned farms in [[Italia (Roman province)|Italy]]; he refers specifically to estates at Ardea, Carseoli, and Alba,<ref name=lacus /> and speaks repeatedly of his own practical experience in agriculture.

===Editions===
The earliest editions of Columella group his works with those on agriculture of [[Cato the Elder]], [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]] and [[Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus Palladius|Palladius]]. Some modern library catalogues follow Brunet in listing these under "{{Lang|la|Rei rusticae scriptores}}" or "{{Lang|la|Scriptores rei rusticae}}".<ref name=brunet />

* ''{{Lang|la|Iunii Moderati Columellae hortulus}}'' [Rome: Printer of Silius Italicus, {{Circa|1471}}] (book X only)
* [[Georgius Merula]], Franciscus Colucia (eds.) ''{{Lang|la|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
* [[Filippo Beroaldo|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 [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_kjLGbKoerucC/page/n3/mode/2up ''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: [https://gutenberg.beic.it/view/action/singleViewer.do?dvs=1620746557679~645&locale=en_GB&VIEWER_URL=/view/action/singleViewer.do?&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=10&frameId=1&usePid1=true&usePid2=true In Venetia: appresso Nicolò Beuilacqua, 1564]{{Dead link|date=October 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }} 
* 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{{r|orsini}}
* 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 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=tJlAAAAAcAAJ full text])
* Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella (trans. Anon.) ''[https://archive.org/details/ljuniusmoderatus00colu/ 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

==References==
{{reflist|45em|refs=

<ref name=bradley>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.</ref>

<ref name=brunet>Jacques-Charles Brunet (1843). [https://books.google.com/books?id=GKzPOXskNJgC ''Manuel du libraire et de l'amateur de livres'', fourth edition (in French). Paris: Silvestre. Volume 4, R–Zp, page 238. Accessed May 2011.]</ref>

<ref name=enc>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.</ref>

<ref name=glick>Thomas F. Glick, Steven Livesey, Faith Wallis (editors) (2014). [https://books.google.com/books?id=77y2AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA12 ''Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: an Encyclopedia'']. London; New York: Routledge. {{isbn|9780415969307}}.</ref>

<ref name=kat>Katharine T. von Stackelberg (2012). [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah06080 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. {{isbn|9781405179355}} (print), 9781444338386 online. {{doi|10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah06080}}.</ref>

<ref name=kenney>E.J. Kenney, W.V. Clausen (editors) (1982). [https://books.google.com/books?id=6Ktg9g44L7QC&pg=PA669 ''The Cambridge history of classical literature, volume 2: Latin literature'']. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{isbn|9780521210430}}, page 669.</ref>

<ref name=lacus>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Columella/de_Re_Rustica/3*.html#9.2 "De re rustica (English translation) III.9.2"]. Loeb Classical Library edition, 1941. Accessed June 2011.</ref>

<ref name=mich>Joseph Fr. Michaud, Eugène Ernest Desplaces, Louis Gabriel Michaud (1854). [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ai4uAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA668 ''Biographie universelle (Michaud) ancienne et moderne ...''] (in French). Paris: Madame C. Desplaces. Volume 8, page 668. Accessed June 2011.</ref>

<ref name=millar>[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.</ref>

<ref name=obo>Silke Diederich (2016). [http://oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/view/document/obo-9780195389661/obo-9780195389661-0203.xml Columella]. ''Oxford Bibliographies Online''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{doi|10.1093/obo/9780195389661-0203}}.</ref>

<ref name=orsini>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: [http://mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10172381-1 1], [http://mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb10172674-7 2].</ref>

<ref name=peck>[[Harry Thurston Peck]] (editor) (1896). "Columella, L. Iunius Moderātus". [https://archive.org/details/cu31924027019482/page/383/mode/1up ''Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities'']. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.</ref>

<ref name=penny>[Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge] (1837). [https://archive.org/details/pennycyclopaedi10unkngoog/page/n390 ''Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge'']. C. Knight. volumes 7–8, page 380. Accessed June 2011.</ref>

<ref name=rodgers>[[R. H. Rodgers]] (editor) (2010). [https://books.google.com/books?id=0J2ifLCYxvkC ''L. Iuni Moderati Columellae Res rustica. Incerti auctoris Liber de arboribus''] (in Latin). Oxonii [Oxford, England]: E Typographeo Clarendoniano. {{isbn|9780199271542}}. Accessed June 2011.</ref>

<ref name=shep>William Shepherd (1802). [https://archive.org/details/lifepoggiobracc00shepgoog ''The life of Poggio Bracciolini'']. London; Liverpool: T. Cadell, Jun., & W. Davies. pp. iv, 487.</ref>

}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* 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, {{ISBN|978-3-525-30225-5}} ([https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2024/2024.10.18 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. 2017. "Columella's Georgics: Form, Method, Intertextuality, Ideology." U.W. Seattle, PhD dissertation
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}

* [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/searchresults?q=Columella&redirect=true Works by Columella at Perseus Digital Library]
* [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/columella.html Complete text in Latin] at [[The Latin Library]]
* [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Columella/home.html Books I‑IV in English translation] at [[LacusCurtius]]

{{Authority control|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Columella}}
[[Category:1st-century agronomists]]
[[Category:1st-century Romans]]
[[Category:1st-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:70 deaths]]
[[Category:AD 4 births]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman writers]]
[[Category:Geoponici]]
[[Category:Hispania Baetica]]
[[Category:Junii|Moderatus Columella, Lucius]]
[[Category:People from Cádiz]]
[[Category:Romans from Hispania]]
[[Category:Silver Age Latin writers]]
[[Category:Technical writers]]
[[Category:Viticulture]]