Gabriel Alonso Herrera

GABRIEL ALONSO HERRERA (Talavera de la Reina, Toledo, 1470 - 1539)
"Agricultura general corrected according to the original text of the first edition published in 1513 by the same author and added by the Real sociedad Económica Matritense". Volumes I-III.
Printer: Royal Printing House. Madrid, 1818- 19.
In good condition.
Measurements: 21 x 15 x 4 cm (x2).
Gabriel Alonso de Herrera was a Spanish agronomist and writer who played a prominent role in the dissemination of agricultural knowledge in 16th century Europe. In this period, large treatises dedicated to agriculture began to proliferate, partly taking up the tradition of the agronomists of Antiquity, whose focus was on Mediterranean practices. Although these new treatises did not represent significant advances compared to the techniques inherited from the Middle Ages, they did mark a renewed interest in the systematization and dissemination of agricultural knowledge.
In this context, the most relevant contribution of Alonso de Herrera was the publication, in 1539, of his Libro de Agricultura, a reference work that addressed various aspects of agricultural activity with a technical and didactic approach. His treatise was part of a European trend of authors who tried to compile and update agricultural knowledge. Contemporary works such as the treatise by the Englishman Anthony Fitzherbert, published in 1523 and reprinted on numerous occasions before 1550, or La Coltivazione by the Italian Luigi Alamanni, published in 1546, are evidence of this common trend. Likewise, the first editions of Charles Estienne's La Maison rustique, printed shortly after 1530, consolidated this editorial impulse.