Museum rusticum et commerciale: or, select papers on agriculture, commerce, arts and manufactures drawn from experience, and communicated by gentlemen engaged in those pursuits by [VARIOUS] - 1766

London: R. Davis, J. Newbery, and L. Davis and C. Reymers, 1766. Second Edition. Half calf. Very good. 6 vols., 8vo in 4s (215 × 140 mm), pp. [8], viii, 480, [8, index]; [4], viii, 383, [10, index]; viii, 388, [8, index]; [2], viii, 470, [6, index]; viii, 395, [5, blank & index]; [2, blank], xii, 453, [7, index]; engraved frontispiece and 11 plates, some folding; folding tables; sig. 3E2 of vol. 2 (index) has outer margin cut away, not affecting legibility; some leaves tanned, occasional offsetting and spotting; bound in contemporary half calf over marbled boards, gilt spines in compartments with red morocco lettering-pieces,a little worn, bumped corners, otherwise very good. Revised second edition.Originally issued as a periodical which began publication in September 1763, the first volume of the Museum rusticum was issued in book format the following year. In the first edition the separate monthly issues were merely run together, retaining their original head-pieces above the captions on the initial page of each issue Furthermore some issues remained without date or were misdated. In this revised second edition, however, the original ornaments have been removed and the work produced more coherently as a single whole. Since the work is still a reproduction of the original periodical, however, the individual volumes are identically dated: vols. 1-2 (1764); vols. 3-5 (1765); vol. 6 (1766).The aim of the Museum rusticum was 'to register and preserve all the discoveries and remarks that are new, curious, and valuable, in agriculture, commerce, the arts, manufactures or sciences' (I, p. 4); that is not just to produce articles on rural arts and industries, but to provide a forum for the description of all aspects of the current state of industry and manufactures, with the specific aim of sharing good practice and new ideas in order to foster improvements in these fields. It has been well observed that the early development of the industrial revolution was dependent on prior and ongoing improvement in agricultural practice. As the editors of the Museum rusticum put it in their preface, '[o]n the perfection of husbandry depends, in great measure, the encrease of commerce; and as agriculture is far from being generally in a very improved state in these kingdoms, preference is given to papers written on that subject.' (pp. 3-4) The editors are described as members of the (now Royal) Society of Arts, established only ten years before the first publication of the Museum rusticum, and the work clearly represents an attempt to broadcast the ideals of the Society to a wider audience. Contributors to the journal include Arthur Young (1741-1820), John Wynn Baker (d. 1775), Thomas Comber and Bartholomew Roque.In addition to articles on all aspects of agriculture, contributors also offered their thoughts and experiences on the manufacture of saltpetre, textiles, paper-making, dying, bleaching surveying, mining, ceramics, coinage, road-making, carriage-making, and many other topics. Also of great interest to economic history are the numerous articles outlining historical changes in the prices of wheat, beef and other agricultural products.Crane and Kaye 590; ESTC T164647; Fussell, pp. 54-55; Kress 612; Higgs 3113; NCBEL II 1303; Roscoe A374; Rothamstead. p. 108; Times handlist, p. 43.