Daniel Mainardi - Della coltivazione del riso e della coltura dei prati e degli arativi con la descrizione ed uso di - 1792

Full title: On the Cultivation of Rice and the Cultivation of Meadows and Fodder Crops with the Description and Use of a New Machine for Threshing Any Kind of Grain by Danel Mainardi, engineer and public expert
In Padua: at the Seminar’s Printing Office, 1792, LVI pages, 1 plate page. Measurements 21 cm x 14 cm. Complete.
Very elegant leather binding with gilt ornaments on the boards, spine, and at the edges of the covers.
Little to note except for the light pencil marks on the title page and a couple of other pages inside,
small nick on the upper cap. A solid copy of great rarity.

Historical placement
1792 is a crucial year: the Republic of Venice is in its final years, but agronomic culture is very lively. Mainardi’s work fits into the tradition of technical manuals published in Padua and Venice for:

landowners
surveyors
rural engineers
managers of agricultural estates
The combination rice + meadows + fodder crops is typical of the low-plain areas of the Veneto and Lombardy, where rice growing was already established.
The 1792 edition places Mainardi among the late 18th‑century agronomic authors who operated in the context of Venetian agricultural modernization. The Seminary of Padua frequently published technical texts intended for landowners, surveyors, and rural engineers.

The work is a practical agronomic manual, with three thematic nuclei:
1. Rice cultivation
preparation techniques for water chambers
management of flooding
cultivated varieties in Veneto and the Lower Padovan area
phytosanitary problems (blast, rot)
yields and harvesting methods
2. Cultivation of meadows and fodder crops
cereal rotations
manures (manure, lime, clover cover crops)
management of irrigated meadows and marsh lands
techniques of mowing and forage preservation
3. The “new machine for threshing any kind of grain”
This is the most innovative part of the volume. The illustrated plate (a full-page plate) likely shows:
a hand-cranked or horse-powered thresher
teeth drums or ratchet drums
sieves and a fan for separation
a wooden frame with metal reinforcements
usage and maintenance instructions
The machine is a pre‑industrial prototype, preceding the mechanical threshers of the 19th century: a precious document for the history of agricultural mechanization in Veneto.