John Worlidge - Systema Agriculturae - 1681

Systema Agriculturæ, The Mystery of Husbandry Discovered by John Worlidge,

[24], 334, [6]

Book in very good condition, a marginal restoration at the top right of the title page, see photo, some light signs of moisture on some interior pages barely visible, otherwise nothing to report.

It is a broad practical treatise on English agriculture in the Seventeenth Century. The title can be translated as “System of Agriculture, or the Secrets of the Art of Husbandry Revealed.”

It covers the tillage and manuring of lands, the kitchen gardens, the orchards, the meadows, the woods, animal husbandry, bees, silkworms, and agricultural tools. It also includes two sections with their own title pages:

* Kalendarium rusticum: monthly calendar of agricultural work.
* Dictionarium rusticum: dictionary of rural terms.

This edition is described as correct and enlarged, with an entire added section and numerous additions. It was published for Thomas Dring, under the sign The Harrow, at the corner of Chancery Lane in Fleet Street.

John Worlidge, also known as John Woolridge, was an English writer on agriculture who lived in Petersfield, Hampshire. The dates commonly given are 1640–1700, although some catalogs prefer to indicate only the documented period of activity.

His importance lies chiefly in having gathered and organized the agricultural knowledge of the time into a coherent and very extensive manual.