[COOKERY & VITICULTURE] Enologia: ovvero a’Arte de Fare, Conservare e far viaggiare I vini del regno

Two volumes.  8vo., 210 x 125 mm., [8 ¼ x 5 inches].  xxxv [1] pp., 283 pp.; 268 pp.  Illustrated by 5 engraved plates.  Bound in publisher’s printed wrappers; small hole on upper wrapper of volume II, some minor soiling do to dust and age, otherwise a remarkable copy in contemporary condition.

Second edition, nearly identical to the first edition published in 1812.  One of the most important contributions to the Italian wine business published to date.

“The Art of Making, Conserving and Transporting Wine,” is a classic in the field of Italian enology and one which had long term impact on Italian viticulture.  Using what he had learned from Lavoisier and his study of the “new chemistry, Dandolo applied the system to his own vineyard in Varese, north of Milan near Lake Como.  It was here that he studied the soil, recorded information on the weather and its fluctuations, and applied a chemical fertilizer to enhance the growing potential of his vines.  Like with all of his scientific experiments he recorded this information and then published the results for the benefit of the agricultural public.  Enologia was his great contribution to wine making and creating a stable wine that through the use of chemistry could be shipped and not damaged in the process.

Dandolo, an agriculturalist from Lombardy wrote manuals for the successful cultivation of a variety of crops, including the potato, vines, and tomatoes, in addition to his study of the silk worm for the textile industry in Milan.  He studied the best practices for farming, soil conservation and rotations, husbandry and farm management.  His influence on the agricultural reform movement in Lombardy can be judged by the number of editions published and the many editors from places all over the region that printed and sold his books.  His most famous book is the two volume work on viticulture

Vittorio Niccoli.  Saggio Storico e Bibliografico dell’Agricultura Italiana, p. 512.  André L. Simon.  Bibliotheca Gastronomica, no. 433.  Maria Paleari Henssler.  Bibliografia Latino-Italiana di Gastronomia, I. pp. 236-7, 485.  Lord Westbury. Handlist of Italian Cookery Books, p. 74.  Carlo Preto.  Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, V. 32, (1986).