SCHABOL, Roger. Dictionnaire pour la Théorie et la Pratique du Jardinage et de l’Agriculture, par Principes, et démontrées d’après la Physique des Végétaux.
Paris, Chez Debure Pere, 1770.
£1,500
8vo, pp. lxxx, 528; engraved frontispiece, 18 engraved plates at the end (8 folding) and occasional illustrations throughout the text. Plate 13 with lower half cut out, which was seemingly illustrated, for traces of printing are visible (plate 14 looks similar as to the image setting, although the lower half is blank). Small vignette on title page, head and tail pieces. Bound in original decorated wrappers, paper label to spine with ink title. Label and wrapper on spine deteriorated, showing sewing on four stations of single supports. Untrimmed, with deckled edges. A fine copy, complete, in its original wrappers, with frontispiece and all the 18 plates here present, which often are lacking.
The abbot Jean-Roger Shabol (1690-1768) was a passionate French gardener and horticulturalist, who is renown for his significant contribution to the field. His dictionary of gardening was first published in Paris in 1767. He introduced it with a “Speech on gardening”, which describes the functions of the air, the parts of plants, seeds and sap. The present copy is the second edition of this lovely work, published posthumously, which includes descriptions of garden features, methods of cultivation, horticultural implements and stages of growth in fruit, flower and tree.
