I principii della vegetazione applicati alla vera arte di coltivar la terra per raccorre dalla medesima il maggiore possibile frutto dell'Ab. D. Berardo Quartapelle tomo primo [-secondo]

WITH LARGE SECTIONS ON WINE AND OIL CULTIVATION AND PRODUCTION

Two volumes in one, 8vo (197x132 mm). 288, [2]; XIV, 3-355, [1]. In volume two pp. 15/16 misplaced. Later half vellum, title lettered on spine (joints repaired). Engraved bookplate pasted on one of the front endleaves in volume one (“Ex libris Francisci Xaverii Petroni I.C.”). Long manuscript note on the title page of volume one dated 1914. Small worm hole to the first 3 leaves in volume one skilfully repaired. A good copy.

Rare first edition. At the time of its publication, this work was one of the most up to date in Italy on agricultural science. Its 60 chapters (17 in the first volume and 34 in the second) cover topics such as the cultivation of natural and artificial meadows, related herbs and crops, irrigation and harvesting, seeds, fertilisers, agricultural tools, and various types of cereals and legumes. Of particular interest are the extensive chapters devoted to the cultivation of vines, the selection, care and harvesting of grapes, and the production of wine (vol. 2, chaps. XXI–XXIV), as well as the chapters on the cultivation and care of olive trees, and the production and storage of olive oil (vol. II, chaps. XXVI–XXXIII).

Berardo Quartapelle was born in Teramo in 1749. Ordained as a priest in Teramo in 1774, he obtained a license to open a public school in the city teaching grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy. Due to the novelty of its teaching content and methods, the school immediately attracted a large number of students, but also harsh criticism from some members of the local clergy. The complaints led to a long trial held at the bishop's curia in Teramo, which went through various stages and whose outcome remains unclear. Although Quartapelle was suspended from his position as teacher, it seems that he actually continued his teaching activities. Beyond the dubious conclusion, the story must be seen in the context of the hostility of the highest local ecclesiastical authority towards an emerging group of intellectuals, which, in addition to Quartapelle, included Melchiorre Delfico, Giovanni Bernardino Thaulero, Alessio and Francesco Saverio Tullj, all advocates of cultural and educational renewal, with a markedly anti-curialist stance.

Alongside his academic commitments, Quartapelle also pursued scholarly activities during those years, publishing a work in Naples in 1787 entitled Elementi di logica e psicologia (‘Elements of Logic and Psychology'), which was highly critical of scholasticism and influenced by sensism, scientific empiricism, and naturalism. The resurgence of controversy surrounding his school led him, at the end of 1788, to decide to leave Teramo and follow his disciple Orazio Delfico to Pavia, where the latter intended to attend university. Teacher and pupil remained in the Lombard city for two years, and Quartapelle took advantage of the long stay to cultivate and deepen his scientific interests through the academic lectures of Lorenzo Mascheroni, Lazzaro Spallanzani, and Alessandro Volta. Returning to Teramo in 1790, he reopened his school, together with a scientific laboratory equipped with machines and tools brought from Pavia, inaugurating a fervent period of teaching and research. Once again, however, the bishop's never-quite-dormant hostility towards him was rekindled, culminating in new complaints and a new trial. The tense local climate prompted Quartapelle to move to Naples this time, where he stayed from 1794 to the end of 1796. Here, in addition to working as a tutor, he published a Memoria sulla maniera di preparare e seminare il grano (‘Essay on how to prepare and sow wheat') for the Patriotic Society of Teramo (of which he had since become a member), which demonstrates how his scientific interests were converging towards agricultural issues.

Back in Teramo, Quartapelle devoted himself full-time to his scientific research. With the invasion of the city by the French army in December 1798, he was elected member of the Municipality, but just eight days later, a violent pro-Bourbon popular uprising succeeded, albeit temporarily, in driving out the French garrison. During the turmoil, Quartapelle's home and scientific laboratory were looted and destroyed, and he himself escaped lynching by taking refuge in a nearby house. He later found shelter in Ancona, and then in Monte di Nove, near Ascoli. With the first Bourbon restoration, his property was confiscated, but his involvement with the French regime does not seem to have caused him further legal trouble. This can be inferred from certain public appointments, such as his participation in 1802 in a commission that was to distribute subsidies to the population affected by the severe famine of that year. In 1801-02, meanwhile, he had published his major work, Principi della vegetazione (‘Principles of Vegetation'), considered a fundamental contribution to southern Italian agronomic literature in the early 19^th century. Quartapelle died in Teramo in 1804 (cf. (cf. A. Tanturri, Quartapelle, Berardo, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 85, Rome, 2016, s.v.; see also A. Scocco Marini, Quartapelle, Berardo, in: “Gente d'Abruzzo. Dizionario biografico”, E. Di Carlo ed., Castelli, 2007, vol. 8, pp. 287-290; and G. Di Giannatale, Storia della scuola teramana dalla seconda metà del XVIII al XIX secolo, Teramo, 2014, passim).

Niccoli, 75; Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\UBOE\041364. The book has been reprinted in facsimile editions in Bologna by Forni and in Nereto by the Consorzio di bonifica integrale dei colli di Tortoreto e Sant'Omero in 1981.

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