Astronomie by Joseph Jérôme Le Français de Lalande(
Book
)8
editions published
in
1771
in
French
and held by
96 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide

Traité des arbres fruitiers : contenant leur figure, leur description, leur culture &c. by Duhamel du Monceau(
Book
)5
editions published
in
1768
in
French
and held by
76 WorldCat member
libraries
worldwide
Henri Duhamel du Monceau (1700-82) was a justifiably celebrated Parisian polymath who gave up on formal university training
to take lodgings near the Botanical Gardens, where he pursued his own plan of learning from the director and from other distinguished
persons who gathered there. He cultivated trees on his own estates, authored a number of important books on topics as diverse
as agronomy, marine architecture, and ichthyology, and was a member of all the important scientific academies. This treatise
on fruit culture proved to be of considerable importance, and the plates were among the most beautiful botanical engravings
of the period. The text begins by describing the appropriate methods for pruning and grafting fruit trees, and goes on to
discuss the different varieties of individual fruits, including 58 types of pears. The engravings show uncommon consistency
from beginning to end in how substantial and skillfully executed they are. The images are faithful to nature, thoughtfully
designed, and so finely wrought as to appear luscious