During this time he wrote the Ruralia commoda, an agricultural treatise based largely on classical and medieval sources (mostly Albertus Magnus), as well as his own experience as a landowner.

[4] The Ruralia commoda, sometimes known as the Liber ruralium commodorum ("book of rural benefits"), was completed some time between 1304 and 1309, and was dedicated to Charles II of Naples.

After circulating in numerous manuscript copies, Crescenzi's treatise became the first printed modern text on agriculture when it was published in Augsburg by Johann Schüssler in 1471.

While de' Crescenzi cites Columella twelve times, all the citations are indirect, and taken from the Opus agriculturae of Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus Palladius.

He also inspired a genre of German literature called Hausväterliteratur ('reading for the father of the family'), practical guides about crop husbandry, gardening, cattle breeding, hunting, etiquette, and so on for peasant farmers .