Le Guide du magnanier, ou L'Art d'élever les vers à soie de manière que la réussite en soit infiniment moins casuelle et beaucoup meilleure qu'elle ne l'a été jusqu'ici. Ouvrage contenant tout ce qu'ont écrit de mieux sur cet art si utile non-seulement les meilleurs auteurs français et italiens, tels que M. l'abbé de Sauvages, Thomé, Nysten, Redarès, Boitard, Bonafous, Raynaud, Deby, Vida, Malpighi, Dandolo, Pitaro, mais encore tous ceux qui en ont parlé jusqu'à ce jour, ce qu'ont appris à son auteur 11 ans d'expériences et ses relations avec les magnaniers les plus distingués des Cévennes[The Silkworm-Raiser’s Guide, or The Art of Rearing Silkworms in such a Way that Success Becomes Infinitely Less Uncertain and Far Superior to What Has Been Achieved Until Now. A Work Containing the Best That Has Been Written on This Most Useful Art Not Only by the Finest French and Italian Authors—such as Abbé de Sauvages, Thomé, Nysten, Redarès, Boitard, Bonafous, Raynaud, Deby, Vida, Malpighi, Dandolo, and Pitaro—but Also by All Those Who Have Written on the Subject to This Day, Together with the Results of Eleven Years of Experience and the Author’s Dealings with the Most Distinguished Silkworm-Raisers of the Cévennes]
Second edition, partly original, as it was revised, corrected and enlarged with a handbook for the cultivation of mulberry trees, setting out the principles by which the fullest advantage may be drawn from this tree, together with the presentation of a new method of cultivation designed to prevent its mortality.
Light dampstaining to the upper outer margin of the first leaves, small losses to the head- and tail-cap of the spine, a few scattered spots.
The work was reissued in 1837 and 1848.
Charles Fraissinet (1798–1856) was a pastor of the Reformed Church at Sauve (Gard).
Although closely involved in the theological controversies of his day, he is best remembered for his commitment to sericulture and for publishing several pamphlets on the subject, notably the present Guide du magnanier.
A silkworm breeder himself, he devised a method for obtaining “les œufs de vers à soie à leur plus haut point de perfection”.
This activity even appears to have tempered the mutual belligerence of the pastor and the parish priest of Sauve, since, in the prospectus for this method, Curé Bernard—his sworn enemy—nonetheless made it “un devoir d’engager tous les sériciculteurs à se procurer sans retard la méthode de M. Fraissinet”.