Grassland Agriculture in Italy and France

OURCHES, Charles d’.

Traité général des prairies, et de leurs irrigation. Ouvrage orné de planches et de plans de diverses machines pour élever les eaux à peu de frais.

Nancy, Chez Bontoux... [1804].

8vo (21.8 x 13.5 cm). xv, [1], 184, [4] pp., 1 leaf (“Avis au relieur”), 8 folded engraved plates. Light dampstain on title and preliminaries. Bound in contemporary quarter vellum and paper over boards. Generally excellent.
[BOUND WITH:] PEYLA, Giovanni Pietro. Della colture de’ prati di G. P. Peyla Torinese. Nuova edizione diligentemente corretta. Milan, Per Giovanni Silvestri..., 1816. 8vo (21.8 x 13.5 cm); 54, [2] pp.
[WITH:] COMMERELL, Abbé de. Mémoire et instruction sur la culture, l’usage & les avantages de la racine d’abondance ou de disette... de la culture des carottes et de la spergule. Lausanne, François Grasset et Comp., 1786. 8vo (21.8 x 13.5 cm); viii, 9-56 pp.
[WITH:] [BARUFFALDI, Carlo.] Della coltivazione del raygras. Ferrara, Giuseppe Rinaldi, 1782. 8vo (18.7 x 12.2 cm); xiv, [2] pp. (last p. blank) ; preface signed Carlo Baruffaldi.
[WITH:] [Anonymous.] L’Art de fertiliser les terres, ou Observations sur les prairies artificielles & sur l’usage du plâtre employé comme engrais. En Suisse, Chez les libraires des principales villes; À Lyon, Chez les Frères Perisse, 1779. 8vo (19.5 x 11.7 cm); [2], 48 pp.
[WITH:] [Anonymous.] Le praterie artifiziali sia Metodo di perfezionare l’agricolture in tutte provincie della Francia... Venice, Bartolommeo Occhi, 1765. 8vo (19 x 12.5 cm); 103, [1] pp. (last p. blank).
[WITH EXTRACT:] MANETTI, Saverio. Sopra una pianta nominate in qualche luogo della Toscana Fieno Greco… [S.l., s.n., 1780s-90s?] 8vo (19 x 12.5 cm); 39-60 pp.
[AND WITH MANUSCRIPT:] [Anonymous.] “Sulla radice d’abbondanza o Bieta campestre.” 8vo (21.4 x 13.5 cm); 4 pp.

This collection of eight works—six pamphlets, a journal extract, and a manuscript—focuses on grassland agriculture. Compiled and annotated in Italian by its original owner, it addresses a variety of topics, including irrigation, enclosure, improved grazing plants, better cattle husbandry, and the creation of new grazing land. The agricultural issues discussed, the Italian imprints within the volume, and the book’s provenance all suggest a connection to the Po Delta and a growing interest in new agricultural approaches in Northern Italy during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

U.S. copies in OCLC: Ourches (Harvard, Brown and University of Delaware); Peyla (only University of Illinois for this edition; earlier editions from 1786 and after, including a French translation, traced at NYPL and University of Delaware); Commerell (UCLA); Baruffaldi (no copies recorded in U.S. or elsewhere); 5.) L’Art de fertiliser les terres (Harvard); Le praterie artifiziali... (no copies, only three copies recorded elsewhere); Manetti (no copies recorded in the U.S. or elsewhere); and “Sulla radice d’abbondanza o Bieta campestre” (unique manuscript, unrecorded).

Price: $2,450.00