[Gardening. With special provenance] Instruction pour les jardins fruitiers et potagers,

Avec une Traité des Orangers, suivy de quelques Réflexions sur l'Agriculture, par feu Mr. De la Quintinye, Directeur de tous les Jardins Fruitiers & Potagers du Roy. Paris, C. Barbin, 1690, 2 volumes, (8),522,(2); 566,(2) p., with engraved portrait of the author, 13 engraved plates (2x double-page), 11 engraved illustrations and 3 woodcut illustrations, contemporary uniform marbled calf with ribbed, gilt back with morocco title shield, 4to.

Several plates tender; traces of removed strip over old owner's inscriptions (see below); old annotation on endpaper. Both bindings with torn top hinge and some traces of wear and use. Good set with wide blank margin and with special provenance, both volumes with slightly different inscription of the first owner; in volume 1: "Acheté par monsr. Antoine Vranx Abbe de Cysoin scituéz entre Lille et Tournay l'an 1693". The Saint Callixtus abbey of Cysoing (Northern France) was founded in 833 and looted and destroyed during the French Revolution, during which this book was possibly acquired. It is expected that abbot Antoine Vranx had bought the book because of the abbey's gardens. The scarce first edition of this oft-reprinted, influential work by Jean-Baptiste de la Quintinie (1626-1688), one of the most important 17th-century agronomist and appointed by Louis XIV as director of the royal gardens and was granted nobility in 1687. At his death in 1688 the king let slip that this loss would never be recuperated. See extensively on the author: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_de_La_Quintinie.