Henri Louis DUHAMEL DU MONCEAU
Traité des arbres fruitiers ; contenant leur figure, leur description, leur culture.
Saillant & Desaint, à Paris 1768, 2 tomes en 2 Vol. in-4 (25x33,5cm), (1f.) (2f. de faux-titre et titre) (1f. tit. fr.) (XXIXp.) (1p.) et (1f. priv.) 337 pp. et (1f.) (2f. de faux-titre et titre) 280pp., deux volumes reliés.
DUHAMEL DU MONCEAU Henri Louis
Traité des arbres fruitiers; contenant leur figure, leur description, leur culture
[Treatise on Fruit Trees]Saillant et Desaint, à Paris 1768, 25 x 33,5 cm, (1f.) (2f.) (1f tit fr.)
(XXIX p.) (1 p.) et (1f.) 337 pp and (1f.) (2 f.) 280 pp., two volumes, contemporary calf
First edition, frontispiece by de Sève engraved by de Launay and 180 plates (with numerous life-size figures) admirably rendered after drawings by Claude Aubriet, Madeleine-Françoise Basseporte engraved by Catherine Haussard, Charles Milsan, Herisset, and so on.
Contemporary light brown speckled calf. Spines in six compartments with frames and gilt fleurons, title and volume labels in light brown and red morocco. Covers with gilt triple fillet frame. Large gilt dentelle frame inside covers. Double gilt fillets to edges of covers, all edges gilt. Discreet and skillful repairs to head and foot of joints and head- and tail-pieces. A few pages lightly and uniformly browned, but otherwise a very good and fresh copy with good margins.
This remarkable and very notable work stands out in two respects: firstly, that of the illustrations, which are very finely executed and secondly, the fundamental theoretical work of Duhamel du Monceau. It served as reference work and manual, the author demarcating the differences between gardeners' varieties and naturalists' classifications. In his
Treatise on Forests, Duhamel had already used the methods applied to fruit trees (replanting, pruning, and so on) to increase the number of species and preserve forests; methods he had spent a great deal of time experimenting with on his family estates, along with his brother. The engravings show only table fruits, along with a number of grafts and cuts. Almost 250 kinds of fruit are thus described (pears, prunes, apples, cherries, grapes, and so on). The work was done with the help of the Abbé Le Berriays, who provided a little over a third of the illustrations and a significant portion of the text. It is worth remembering that to all intents and purposes Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau is considered the founder of modern agronomy, being the first to describe and theorize the way that trees develop.
$ 10 000