Handsome copy of the scarce third edition of the Parmese humanist Grapaldi's architectural work on the layout of Roman houses, gardens and estates, first published 1494. The work opens with a lengthy index of Latin terms used by Grapaldi. In the spirit of Vitruvius, he begins with a brief chapter on the ancient invention of housing by feral humans, before describing the janua or door, vestibule, and atrium. Rather than immediately entering the house, however, the first part describes the provisioning and cultivation of a Roman country estate: there are chapters on the peristyle or colonnade, cisterns, food- and wine-cellars, fountains, hippodromes and horse-pastures, stables, fish-ponds, rabbit-hutches and aviaries, baths and thermae. The second part concerns the rooms and parts of Roman houses and buildings: stairs, floors, walls and pavements; porticoes; the dining room and kitchen; bedrooms and women's apartments; infirmary; sanctuary for the household gods; library; armoury; grain storage' and towers and roofs. Grapaldi has an eye for detail, describing not only the layout and function of the rooms but also the materials of which they were made and their furnishings, for example the eating and drinking implements of Roman kitchens. His descriptions also inspire digressions on Roman behaviour, such as their diet and attitudes towards wine, for example whether women and children were allowed to drink. There are in fact several discussions of wine, Grapaldi's description of the wine cellar being followed by the history of the vine from Noah and of its establishment in Italy, and a brief guide to various Italian wines, their quality and abundance, etc. His description of Roman bedrooms notes that breastfeeding took place in the women's apartments, and briefly elucidates Roman sex life, i.e. preferably in the daytime, but not after eating or manual labour. The section on the infirmary is an excuse for a discussion of diseases suffered by the Romans and the remedies they employed, while the section on the library describes the construction and binding of Roman books and writing implements. The Cattamici family were one of the principal families of Cortona, a town near Arezzo in Tuscany. Niccolò was the name favoured by the family for several generations. Possibly this Niccolò was the same recorded as having been taken hostage to Siena by imperial troops after the fall of the town to the Prince of Orange, Charles V's general in his campaign against the Florentine Republic. He also owned a 1475 Augustine De civitate Dei. (Lawes Agricultural Library sale Forum 2018, lot 20). The manuscript flyleaves are from an Italian breviary or office book of the C12th, evidently fairly large and intended for liturgical use, presumably in a monastic context, the front fragment containing the opening words of the Benedictus or Song of Zechariah from the first book of Luke's Gospel. 'Benedictus dominus deus Israel quia visitavit et fecit (etc.)', one of the Ferial Gospel readings, so-called because of its regular use in liturgy, as well as the end of the Benedicte, or Canticle of the Three Young Men from Daniel 3; the rear fragment contains part of the 'Audite Coeli' or Canticle of Moses from Deutoronomy 32. The text is not that of the Vulgate version, but the less common, pre-Vulgate Vetus Latina biblical text.
