Jean-Baptiste de la Quintinie was a French gardener specialising in the cultivation of fruit trees and vegetables. In 1670, he was appointed to serve as director of the fruit and vegetable gardens at Versailles, a post specially created for him by Louis XIV’s chief minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert. In the service of the king, de la Quintinie cultivated plants that were sensitive to the French climate such as figs, oranges and melons as well as devising methods to grow plants out of season so that the royal kitchens could have access to a range of fruits and vegetables all year round.

This book is the 1697 edition of his guide to his methods. The first edition of the work was published posthumously in 1690 by de la Quintinie’s son Michel.

Binding information

Contemporary light brown calf binding, with both sides and spine gold-tooled.

In the centre of both sides, the arms of William III and Mary II (England, France, Scotland and Ireland quartered on an escutcheon of pretence billetty a lion rampant [Nassau]) surrounded by the garter and surmounted by a crown.

All sides of both boards tooled with flower-head and vine roll.

Spine divided into six compartments by raised bands, each tooled with a leaf and flower roll. Second compartment contains an additional piece of red leather, gold-tooled with the title: ‘INSTRVTI / PVUR. LES / IARDINS’; third compartment gold-tooled: ‘TOM / I’, surrounded by four corner-tools with circular borders and flower-heads. All other compartments tooled with an identical design: a diamond shape formed of single fillets in the centre, filled with four flowers sprouting into each of the corners of the diamond; sun tool above and below diamond; four tulip-shaped tools in each of the corners; each compartment tooled with one double and one single fillet border. Head and tail of spine tooled with a roll of sprouting flowers and leaves.

Identical binding to vol. 2 (RCIN 1057383, Add B 48.5b).