Very rare first edition of the first French treatise on the cultivation of tulips, written by a gentleman-gardener. It one of the earliest treatises on tulips published after the well-known bubble-burst in Holland in 1637. Although interest in cultivating exotic and distinguished gardens increased during the 17th-century, the tulip remained an elite commodity, and took on new meanings as a symbol of personal distinction and connoisseurship. The catalogue included at the end of the present work lists 438 variants of tulips, including the "Monstereulle" and the "Panacée de Caen", with descriptions of their colouration.
The text contains a history of the tulip, how to cultivate the flower, a catalogue of tulip names, and, most importantly, the first serious consideration of the nature and causes of "tulip breaking", a phenomenon in which multi-coloured streaks appear in the petals of the tulip. This variation, which was caused by a virus, was incredibly rare and highly sought after. In the 17th-century the cause of this variation was unknown, but the author, gardener Charles de la Chesnée Monstreul (1623-ca.1700) claimed to have discovered the secret, which he encoded in a poem in the present work.
The work is dedicated to a noblewoman, mademoiselle de Beuvron, a scion of the House of dHarcourt, who is mentioned by Tallemant des Réaux in his Historiettes as "une des plus belles personnes de la cour". A second edition of the work was published in 1658 in Rouen and 12 further editions, with the title Traité des tulipes, appeared between 1678 and 1692.
With the bookplate of the library of Louis Hippolyte Rangeard de la Germonière mounted on the verso of the first flyleaf, and an owners inscription on page [8]. The boards are slightly warped. The endpapers have been replaced, the work is somewhat browned throughout, but otherwise in good condition. Goldsmith, STC French, L133; Lindley library catalogue, p. 244; Meritte-Longchamp, Catalogue des livres publiés à Caen, no. 43; National agricultural library, no. 90, p. 53; USTC 6120989 (11 copies); WorldCat 1253816055, 8371018 (8 copies); not in Hunt; Nissen; Pritzel.