Olives.- Fantoni (Count Luigi) Delle specie diverse d'Olive che trovano ne Monti della Fattoria d'Agnano Territorio Pisano..., manuscript on paper in Italian, 117pp. excluding blanks, including 107 mostly full-page drawings, most in pen and ink, few in pencil, a few with grey wash or watercolour, final 32pp. loose, letter addressed to Luigi Fantoni and advertisement f. pasted to front pastedown, contemporary limp boards, title supplied in manuscript to spine, extremities worn, edges uncut, folio (approx. 385 x 270mm), [Florence], [1770-84].

⁂ A unique and important testimony to the growing interest paid, above all in Tuscany, to olive growing and the study of olive oil production techniques throughout the eighteenth century. This is likely a manuscript rough draft on which Fantoni marked his observations and analysis of each species. The manuscript finishes with a series of 14 watercolours in grey wash which depict some of the parasitic insects that attack the olive tree. The framings of the drawings and the calligraphy are most probably by another hand. The fragment of a letter addressed to Count Luigi Fantoni included in this manuscript seems to confirm his authorship of this work.

This was a time of interest to better understand the history of the olive tree, and how it was propagated, cared for, and fertilized. The height of this interest can be dated to 1753 when Accademia dei Georgofili, a Florentine institution promoting the study of agronomy, forestry and economic, was founded, of which Fantoni was a member. This institution has published, or kept in their archives numerous periodicals, handwritten memoirs and manuscripts concerning the olive tree.

Luigi Fantoni (1749-1808).

A longer description is available upon request.