LA QUINTINYE, Jean de. Instruction pour les Jardins Fruiters et Potagers, Avec un Traité des Orangers, suivy de quelques Réflexions sur l'Argriculture. Two volumes. [8], 16, 522, [2]; 104, 101-180, 179-566, [2] pp. With an engraved frontispiece of the author, 13 engraved plates (of which 2 are double-page), plus 3 engraved garden plans and 9 engraved vignettes in the text. 4to., 253 x 182 mm, bound in contemporary French mottled calf, gilt-tooled spines. Paris: Claude Barbin, 1690.

Exceedingly Rare First Edition of one of the most important French theoretical gardening books. Jean de la Quintinye (1626-1688) was the leading French gardener of the seventeenth century. In 1665 he began work as a gardener for Louis XIV, and from 1677 to 1683 he was "jardinier en chef" at Versailles. La Quintinye in effect established the vocabulary for gardening, for fruit tree cultivation, for botanical grafting and other aspects of the vegetable garden.

His great book, Instruction pour les Jardins Fruiters et Potagers, dedicated to King Louis XIV, elucidates La Quintinye's directions for successful cultivation of fruit and kitchen gardens. He began as overseer to the ancient kitchen garden at Versailles built by Louis XIII where he was responsible for the orange trees in the new orangery designed by André Le Nôtre. Beside the Versailles kitchen garden he designed many notable gardens including either orchards or vegetable gardens for Colbert at Sceaux, for Fouquet at Vaux-le-Vicomte, for the Prince de Condé at Chantilly and for the duc de Montausier Rambouillet.

La Quintinye's text provides detailed information that was simply unavailable on the subject; the final part on the kitchen garden provides a month-by-month almanac of planting, pruning and harvesting. A key section of his book is the one dealing with fruit trees, orange and pear mainly, which offers more direction on their cultivation than was previously known. His advice on pruning is also recognized as the first treatise on the distinct technical instructions and benefits derived from skilful pruning. His book contains a number of appealing and informative illustrations showing gardeners at work on the Versailles grounds, many on grafting and pruning techniques, and one famous one at the beginning of the section on orange trees showing the small fruit trees being transferred into the containers known as Versailles tubs.

The volume publishes for the first time a literary form of an "Idylle" written by Charles Perrault (1628-1703) in praise of La Quintinye's gardening knowledge and celebrating the publication of his new book. Perrault wrote the descriptive record of the fountains in the famed Aesop labyrinth garden at Versailles, which was designed and planted by Le Nôtre between 1668 and 1674.

Bindings repaired, one hinge starting, some staining to covers; frontispiece cleaned and title-page mended; a few gatherings a little dusty. Overall, a very good copy. PROVENANCE: with early ownership inscription on first blank leaf "Greset d[octor] méd." Three copies in NUC; not in Hunt or Plesch collections. Extremely rare on the market: we have been searching for a copy of the first edition, in any condition, for well over ten years.

Pritzel 5075. Oak Spring, Pomona 1. Brunet III, 838.