Huber, Vincenzo

[COOKERY & WINE]. Saggio di Enologia Practica, o sia Nuovo Metodo di Fare il Vino e suoi Vantaggi.

Milano: Tipografia de’Fratelli Sonzogno, 1824. Item #1363

8vo. 210 x 140 mm., [8 x 5 ¼ inches]. lxxvi, 591, [1 blank], lxxiii, [1] pp. Illustrated with three folding engraved plates. Bound in contemporary straight-grain blue morocco, spine git, gilt fillet boarders and inner dentelles, yellow endpapers, edges gilt. Basserman-Jordan bookplate on the upper pastedown.

A beautiful copy of the very much expanded Second Edition of this rare study of wine making in early 19^th-century Italy. When one considers the first edition, (Estratto del saggio enologia practica, 1823) was only on-quarter the size of the current work, it could be argued that the Second edition is a new work entirely.

In the Saggio di enologia practica, Huber follows the method of wine making as invented by Mme. Elizabeth Gervais, the first important women wine make. Her patent had been obtained through her brother in 1820 and word of her methods spread rapidly throughout Europe and

the United States. Gervais’ invention was to use a valve during fermentation that allowed for the expanding gas to escape while preventing additional oxygen from coming it. One added benefit of this method was that greater portion of wine was preserved through the reduction of evaporation.

Huber begins his work with a useful 25-page index of the many subjects covered, followed by various chapters breaking down the steps in making wine. In addition to the work of Gervais, Huber discusses the contributions of writers such as Bosc, Burel, Chaptal, Danolo, Gay-Sussac, Herpin and Leonardi. The wines and their grape varieties are covered (including Lombardy, Veneto, Tyrol, Istria, Dalmatia, Austro- Hungarian Empire, as well as those of Portugal, Spain, France and Switzerland.

OCLC cites only two copies in the United States, Fresno State University and California Davis.

Vittorio Niccoli, Saggio Storico e Bibliografico della Agricoltura Italiano, p, 515. Maria Paleari Henssler, Bibliografia Latino-Italiana di Gastronomia, p. 392.. Lord Westbury, Handlist of Italian Cookery Books, p. 122.

Price: $3,750.00