Susanne Schulz-Falster Catalogue Ten - Schulz-Falster Rare Books

244 PLANCY, Adrien Comte de. L’Administration de
l’Agriculture appliquée à un Exploitation. Paris, Mme Huzard,
1822. £650
Folio (437 x 280 mm), pp. 86, [1], one folding table in the text, part of
the pagination; some light foxing, due to paper stock; a very good copy
in contemporary paste-paper covered boards; discreet repairs to spine;
extremities a little rubbed; a good copy.
First edition of this application of strict accounting practices to the running
of an agricultural business. No detail is too small, no expense too minor to
be represented inde Plancy’s immensely detailed tables. All activities of the
farmer and his labourers are represented on the tables, arranged both by
subject and month of the year. In the second half a Wve year trial account is
given, followed by a table recording the averaged prices for both agricultural
products and labour for the early 1820s. Common prices of products
are also included. A further table deals with common ailments of farm animals,
their causes and remedies, based on various veterinary manuals, especially
that of Tessier. Of particular interest is a comparative table of
agricultural income for the farmer and larger landowner in Wve and ten year
periods.
Goldsmiths’–Kress 23489.12; rare, RLIN and OCLC list just the Harvard copy.
The Earliest Printed Book on Economics
245 PLATEA [PIAZZA], Franciscus de. Opus restitutionum
usuarum et excomunicationum edita per venerabilem Dominvm
Fratrem Franciscvm de Platea Ordinis Minorvm. [colophon:]
Venice, Johannes de Colonia and Johannes Mathen, 22 January
1477. £8800
Chancery 4to, (200 x 151 mm), ll. [152] including initial and Wnal
blank; in double columns, printed in Gothic letter, with initial spaces,
some with guide letters; a few leaves with insigniWcant marginal
dampstaining, some dust-soiling; contemporary full vellum, out of a
Wfteenth century rubricated theological manuscript leaf, some wear to
spine with splits, and worm hole to upper cover; early manuscript
ownership inscription of ?Davitis, and a few contemporary marginal
annotations; a fresh unsophisticated copy in a contemporary binding.
A Wne unsophisticated copy of an incunable edition of the Wrst printed book
to deal with economics. Platea’s Opus restitutionum, Wrst printed in 1472 is
the Wrst, and earliest, book in the Goldsmiths’ and Kress catalogues respectively.
Platea, (also known as Fra Francesco Piazza) (?–1460), a Professor of law
at the University of Bologna and a well-known and acclaimed preacher, includes
a detailed discussion of monetary questions, the taking of interest
and usury in this treatise on canon law. The Wrst part of the Opus
Restitutionum deals with the return of illicit gains. Also discussed are com-
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue ten
mercial transactions under a variety of diVerent legal circumstances, such as
two creditors competing for the spoils of one debtor. The second part concentrates
on usury, which, as in all canon law, denotes not just high interest
but all interest. Platea is Wrmly aligned within the church authorities in his
condemnation of usury. The Wnal section, De Excommunicationes deals with
the judicial exclusion of oVenders from the rights and privileges of the
Christian community.
The printers de Colonia and Mathen had already published an earlier edition
of Platea’s popular work in 1474, further editions were published in
1472 and 1473.
Hain-Copinger 13040; BMC V, 227; GoV P–758; Proctor 4312A; Walsh 1695;
see Goldsmiths’–Kress 1 for Wrst edition.