REY DE PLANAZU (Francois Joseph). Works of agriculture....

REY DE PLANAZU (Francois Joseph).
Works of agriculture.
Paris, Troyes, Orleans, Meaux, Compiegne, 1786-1787. - 26 issues in one volume in-4, 249 x 192. Rooted basane, smooth spine decorated, speckled edges (period binding).
First edition of this important work in the history of agricultural education.
Its author, Francois Joseph Rey de Planazu (17..-1787?), was an agronomist, member of the Physical and Economic Society of Zurich. In order to promote new methods of agriculture to the French nobility, he composed 26 memoirs which he published between 1786 and 1787 in Paris and in various cities of Eastern France. The majority of these memoirs were dedicated to a member of the nobility but also to Louis XVI for the first one and to the king of Prussia for the twenty-third one. In almost all of them, the author proposes innovations for the improvement of agricultural yields, and describes a certain number of tools of his invention.
To illustrate these studies, Rey de Planazu had 31 beautiful copper-engraved plates made, 30 of which were illuminated. These plates bear the painted arms of the dedicatee of the corresponding memoir. Memoirs 9 and 10 do not have a dedicatee. Most of the title pages and plates bear the author's R.P. and his autograph signature. There is also a band with the arms of the King of Prussia.
Here are the details of each memoir:
- N� 1. Traite Sur les causes de l'etat de langueur & l'engourdissement de l'Agriculture en France. Dedicated to the king. Paris : printing house of Grange, 1787. 21 pp. - This first fascicle is not illustrated.
- N� 2. Traite Sur les moyens simples de composer un engrais des plus economiques & des plus avantageux dont la qualite est multipliee au point que l'on peut amender 4 a 5 arpens de terre, ou sans cette operation, il y auroit a peine de quoi en amender un. Dedicated to Monseigneur le Duc d'Aumont. Troyes : Veuve Gobelet's printing office, 1786 (1 f.), 4 pp., 1 plate.
- N� 3. Tableau De la Division des Terres en douze Sols, de facon qu'il n'y ait jamais d'incultes, en repos ou fallaches, dedicated to Monseigneur Louis-Benigne-Francois Bertier. Orleans : printing house of Couret de Villeneuve, 1786. 13 pp., 1 plate.
- N� 4. Traite sur la pomme de terre, avec un moulin pour en extraire la farine, dedicated to Monseigneur Louis-Benigne-Francois Bertier. Meaux : imprimerie d'Augustin-Ponce Courtois, 1786 (1 f.), 8 pp. 1 plate. - This fascicle is not numbered.
- N� 5. Traite Sur l'usage des differentes Herses, avec la Description d'une Herse a Cylindre propre aux terres argilleuses. Dedicated to Messire Comte de Rouge. Troyes : Veuve Gobelet's printing office, 1786 (1 f.), 3 pp., 1 plate.
- N� 6. Traite Sur les differentes manieres de semer, avec la description d'un Semoir nouveau de son invention. Dedicated to Messire Pierre-Francois-Baltazar. Troyes : Veuve Gobelet's printing office, 1786 (1 f.), 4 pp., 1 plate.
- N� 7. Traite Sur les moyens de cultiver toutes sortes de Fourrages de Prairies tant hautes que basses, sur ceux de la conserver par le moyen d'un Ventilateur, avec une Instruction sur les soins & les amendemens qu'on doit donner aux Pres. Dedicated to Madame la duchesse de La Tremoille. Orleans : printing house of Couret de Villeneuve, 1786. 15 pp., 5 plates.
- N� 8. Description of a Machine for cutting Turneps & other roots in the ground to serve as fertilizer, & of recognized utility for desolating high meadows. Dedicated to the Abbot of Arvillars. Troyes : Veuve Gobelet's printing house, 1786 (1 f.), 2 pp. misquoted 3, 1 plate.
- N� 9. Description D'un Levier simple & peu dispendieux a l'usage des habitans de la campagne qui ne se peuvent se procurer le secours & la ressource du Cric. Troyes : Veuve Gobelet's printing office, 1786 (1 f.), 2 pp., 1 plate.
- N� 10. Traite sur les b?ufs. Comparison of the advantages of oxen or horses for the cultivation of land. A way of governing oxen in their education, in their work and in the business that can be done with them, with a description of a new yoke, by means of which all their strength is used. Of the most common diseases, to which the Oxen are prone, & of the remedies which are appropriate there. Troyes : Veuve Gobelet's printing house, 1786 (1 f.), 11 pp., 1 plate.
- N� 11. Description de differentes Sondes a Echappemens, pour rechercher la nature & la qualite des terres a diverses profondeurs, avec la maniere de s'en servir. Dedicated to his Highness Monseigneur Ferdinand-Maximilien-Meriadec, Prince de Rohan. Troyes : Veuve Gobelet's printing house, 1786 (1 f.), 2 pp. misquoted 3, 1 plate.
- N� 12. Machine for threshing grain. Dedicated to Monseigneur le prince d'Havre and Decroy. Compiegne : imprimerie de Bertrand, 1786 (1 f.), 4 pp., 1 plate.
- N� 13. Traite Sur la culture des Turneps & sur l'avantage de cette nourriture pour les Bestiaux, avec la Description d'une Machine pour les hacher. Maniere de faire la Saour-Rouber, avec les moyens de l