The Fruit, Herbs and Vegetables of Italy (1614)

This is a new edition of a classic of the early 17th-century. The book was written by the Italian humanist, Protestant convert and refugee, Giacomo Castelvetro whom, upon coming to England, was horrified by the English preference for large helpings of meat, masses of sugar and very little greenstuff. Italians were good gardeners and had a familiarity with many varieties of vegetable and fruit that were as yet little known in England or, as he noted in his dedication, were being grown only f...