Girolamo Bruni, the silkworm scientist

Archpriest of Mansuè, born in Ceneda in 1720, Pre’ Bruni spent a good part of his eighty two years observing, studying, analysing and improving, not only how silkworms were bred but also how to improve the mulberry tree cultivation methods. He did it with a charitable heart, to increase production and, with his research and teachings, lessoning the problems his parishioners had to face.

The result of his work is a voluminous manuscript, sum of seventeenth century agronomical knowledge in this eld, now conserved in Treviso Town Library.