Piero de' Crescenzi (ca.1233-ca.1321) was a Bologna born lawyer and judge, who studied at the University of Bologna in medicine, law, and the natural sciences. He retired in 1290 to his rural estate Villa dell'Olmo, where he composed his most famous work: the Ruralia Commoda also known as the Liber ruralium commodorum, written at some time between 1304 and 1309. The publication consists of 12 books forming a comprehensive encyclopedia of agriculture, largely compiling knowledge from previously written works. This publication was the first such large-scale work on the topic of agriculture since the 4th century's Rerum rusticarum by Palladius, and saw wide-spread distribution in a variety of languages from the 14th century until the 17th, when its popularity waned.