IBN AL-AWWAM Yahya ai-Ishbili. - Lot 141

IBN AL-AWWAM Yahya ai-Ishbili. [Kitab al-filaha] Libro de Agricultura. [...] Traducido al Castellano y anotado por Don Josef Antonio Banqueri [...] De orden superior, y a expensas de la Real Biblioteca. Madrid, Imprenta Real, 1802. 2 small folio volumes. (5)-698 pp. (3)-756 pp. Modern Spanish binding, tan and green marbled basane, ribbed spine with gilt titles, red speckled edges, marbled endpapers (slight wear and wear from use of binding, last leaf discreetly restored in volume I, first quires with a few damp spots and discreet restorations in volume II). Original bilingual Arabic-Spanish edition, with text in columns, printed text in Arabic and facing Spanish translation, of the very first transcription of this famous treatise. Al-Awwam's Kitab al-filaha is the most comprehensive work on agriculture and one of the most important medieval Arabic works on nature to have survived from the Middle Ages. Forgotten until the 18th century, the manuscript was found in the Escorial library, translated into "modern" Arabic and Spanish, and printed in Madrid in 1802. An Andalusian agronomist from the Almohad period, Ibn al-Awwam (Seville, second half of the 12th century - mid-13th century) was the author of this "encyclopedia" of the agricultural and veterinary knowledge of his time. The work is divided into two parts: the first deals with land, fertilizers, water, gardens, trees and fruit; the second with ploughing, seasons, seeds, the harvesting of medically useful plants, cattle breeding and veterinary medicine. The author mentions nearly 600 plants, artificial fertilization, grafting, and describes "drip irrigation" well before the modern era... Drawing on his own experience or the observations and information of other scholars such as Al-Dinnouri, Al-Fadel Al Andalusi, Abu Hanifa al-Dinawari or Ibn-Wahshiya, he cites their works and contributions (all ancient agricultural systems are summarized: Nabataean, Greek, Latin and Arab...). Modern Juan Duran-Loriga medieval-style ex libris pasted to Volume I. The work was translated into French by J. J. Clément-Mullet in 1864-1867. A second edition appeared in Seville in 1878. Casiri. Biblioth. Arab. I-323. Meyerhof, Pharmacologie et botanique chez les musulmans d'Espagne-al-Andalus, 1935, III-1. [Arab world - Agriculture].