Istruzioni sulla nuova manifattura dell’olio introdotta nel Regno di Napoli dal marchese Domenico Grimaldi di Messimeri, Patrizio Genovese, socio ordinario, e corrispondente dell’Accademia de’Geogrofili di Firenze, della Societá di Abricultura di Parigi e di Berna. Secondo edizioni. Migliorata, ed accresciuta notabilmente. Dedicata a S.E. d. Giuseppe Beccadelli di Bologna.
In Napoli: presso Vincenzo Orsino e spese di Giuseppe Maria Porcelli, 1777. Item #1432 8vo. 230 x 140 mm., [8 ½ x 5 ½ inches]. [8] ff, 130 pp. [3]ff. Illustrated with 3 folding plates, bound upside down. Bound in a modern paste paper board binding in the antique style; minor paper restoration to the first leaf. Sound and not an unattractive copy. Second edition, improved with numerous additions, originally published in Naples in 1773; both editions of this important book are very rare. Domenico Grimaldi (1735-1805) was a celebrated economist from Calabria and a student of Neapolitan economist Antonio Genovesi, whose work was internationally known. Grimaldi published numerous works on the agriculture conditions of the Italian south. He applied his knowledge of economics and politics to improve cultivation methods for olive oil, silk, cereal crops and husbandry. His most important work was his plan for the reform of the Neapolitan economy published in 1780 under the title, Piano di riforma per la pubblica economia delle porincie del regno di Napoli. One of the important improvements that Grimaldi writes about is the method used by Genovese farmers in the processing of the oil. He provides details about the cultivation and harvesting of olives, but most importantly offers information about the presses used to extract the oil for the olive. One of the most important parts of this book, and what differentiates it from the 1773 edition, are the updates that he provides after experimenting with the Genovese process. Grimaldi learns that heating the oil during mashing of the pulp harms the quality of the oil once pressed. He also makes a change to the machinery used by the Genovese producers, by taking into account the limitation of the water supply in Southern Italy. The three plates that accompany the text are very important illustrations documenting the components of the press and how it functions. He spends a great deal of time describing the building and the operation of the press. For American libraries, NUC cites a copy at Harvard only, and OCLC adds University of Kansas, and the Hagley Museum Library. The 1773 edition is not cited in NUC and OCLC cites copies at Harvard and NYPL.
Maria Paleari Henssler. Bibliografia Latino-Italiana di Gastronomia, I p. 365. Lord Westbury. Handlist of Italian Cookery Books, p. 118. Giuseppe Laterza. Dizionario enciclopedico letteratura Italiana, vol. III pp. 199-200. Giancinto Donno, Bibliografia sistematica dell’olivo e dell’olio, p. 80.
Price: $2,500.00