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Geoponika

Name (meaning "agricultural works") for an extensive collection of Greek and Latin specialist literature on nutrition and agriculture from antiquity and the Middle Ages. These include works by the Carthaginian Mago (4th century BC), the Greek authors Xenophon (430-354 BC), Aristotle (384-322 BC) and Nicandros (197-130 BC), as well as the Roman authors Cato the Elder (197-130 BC). BC), as well as the Roman authors Cato the Elder (234-149 BC), Varro (116-27 BC), Vergil (70-19 BC), Pliny the Elder (23-79) and Columella (1st century). However, reference is also made to other authors of late antiquity whose works are no longer extant. The Geoponika is of great, influential value in terms of knowledge about ancient food and drink culture, as well as viticulture and winemaking, and has often been reprinted.

Geoponika - zwei Buchcover und Kopf von Columella

The collection was compiled around the year 950 on the instructions of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (905-959) in connection with the establishment of a "library of knowledge". The ruler is particularly known for his successful agricultural reforms. Very probably, the basis of this collection comes from the work "Eklogai peri georgias" (Latin: "Eclogae de re rustica") written in Greek by the scholar Cassianus Bassus Scholasticus (late 6th to early 7th century), who lived about three centuries earlier in the Eastern Roman Empire. Bassus, for his part, used works by various authors of the fourth century AD for his treatise; one of his main sources, for example, was the Greek scholar Vindonius Anatolius of Beirut (also known as Vindanius or Berytius).

The original Greek work, written before the 10th century, has not been preserved in its original version, but it has been possible to reconstruct it partly on the basis of later literature and translations into other languages. It was translated into Arabic, Syriac, Armenian and by Burgundius Pisanus (1119-1193) into Latin. An English version published in 2011 was written by the British cultural historian Andrew Dalby. A large part of the total of 20 books (namely books 4 to 8 on 120 pages with 166 keywords) consists of an enumeration of rules and techniques about viticulture and winemaking. Especially for wine literature in the Middle Ages, Geoponika was a much-used source for numerous authors. For more information on this topic, see also Literature and Winegrowing Personalities.

Columella: By Jean de Tournes, Original, Public Domain, Link

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