Macchina per la pigiatura delle uve o pigiatore. WITH: Sulla macchina per la pigiatura delle uve inventata dal dottor fisico Ignazio Lomeni.
Milano & Torino: Milano: Per Giovanni Silvestri; Torino: Tipografia Chirio e Mina, 1825. Item #1250 8vo. 70, [2] pp. and 8vo. 31 pp. I: Illustrated with 4 engraved plates. Bound in modern boards, original blue printed wrappers bound-in; some staining to the upper wrapper, some minor foxing throughout. II: Stitched as issued and bound in original blue paper wrappers. First editions. Ignazio Lomeni was a highly recognized agronomists who was awarded a Silver Medal by the Government of Milan in 1824 for the invention of his new machine to press grapes. This pamphlet, authorized by the Royal Institute of Science, Letters, and the Arts of Milan contains a description of the machine and its many parts, how it is operated, and its benefits to laborers pressing grapes. Lomeni was a critic of the work of his contemporary of Agostino Bassi (see above) for his rejection of traditional methods of vinification and the adoption of Chaptal’s scientific method. Lomeni’s pamphlet provides information about how to prepare the grapes for crushing and ways of insuring that stems and pieces from the vines are kept out of the pressing process. The five plates illustrate the mechanics of the machine, the moving parts which clean the grapes, the cylinders which crush the grapes and the troughs which capture the liquid after crushing. Lomeni’s publication Sulla macchina of the same year is a further explanation of the operations of the pressing machine and a reply to criticism that the stems and stalks were not sufficiently cleared away during the crushing process. His reply suggests that his process has little impact on the quality of the liquid juice, rather the quality of the grape is in question. Both pamphlets are very rare. The only copies in American are in the collections at UC Davis. Niccoli, Vittorio. Saggio storico e bibliografico dell’Agricultura Italiana, p. 507. Paleari Henssler, Maria. Bibliografia Latino-Italiana di Gastronomia, I, p.437-38.
Price: $1,750.00