Nourse, Timothy
Campania Foelix. or, A Discourse of the Benefits and Improvements of Husbandry: Containing Directions for All Manner of Tillage, Pasturage, and Plantations; As also for the Making of Cyder and Perry. With Some Considerations upon I. Justices of the Peace,

Seller ID: 857

London: Tho. Bennet, 1700. First edition (354, adverts). Octavo, in contemporary full leather, Cambridge style binding, gilt titles and decorations to the spine, five raised bands. Frontispiece an engraving of cultivated land (with an old, rather neat repair). Absent pages 143- 46. Skillfully rebacked (probably in the 19th century) with 'Faelix' rather than 'Foelix' in gilt. Previous owners' signatures/ names (William Gayer, who may not have cared greatly for correct spelling, on spine; John Keslake, who practiced his signature on the blank verso of the title page; and 'NW' whose initials are blind-stamped on front and rear panels). Timothy Nourse (c. 1639- 1699) 'is particularly remembered for his posthumously published book., a volume on agricultural improvement, garden design, the abuses of servants, alehouses, the poor law.that drew directly from local and personal experience. [Campania Foelix] came to the attention of the later eighteenth-century writers on agricultural improvement.[with] its emphasis on new crops, improvements in tillage, and especially on the importance of pastoral as opposed to arable husbandry' (Souden, ODNB). Fussell says, 'In 1700 the country was exporting farm produce.and it was a time when improvements in farming methods were doubtless being widely discussed.some having already been adopted in scattered parts of the country'(85). Here is part of what Nourse has to say about pears and perry: 'Pears likewise are constant and great Bearers, and yield a most plentiful Juice, and being mixed and ground with Crabs, will offer a very wholesome and palatable Liquor and lasting enough; which tho it be rough and harsh agree well with labouring Men, and gets them a good Stomach and will not wash through them so soon as Mault-Drink' (158). Scarce. A pleasing copy in a simple slipcase.

Price: $650.00

For more information or to place your order, you can email us at info@trilliumbooks.ca, telephone us at 705-749-0461,
or write us at
Trillium Antiquarian Books,
1285 Albertus Avenue,
Peterborough, ON K9J 6A4,
Canada.