QUESNAY, François - BELLIAL DES VERTUS, le Sieur de (attrib.)

£3,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Essai sur l'administration des terres. First edition of a work which has been attributed to Quesnay since it expresses many Physiocratic beliefs, in particular those relating to agriculture and its importance to the country's economy. Scholarship, both past and present, remains divided on its authorship. Higgs refused to acknowledge the work as Quesnay's (he lists it as by le Sieur de Bellial des Vertus), and an article by Pierre le Masne and Gabriel Sabbagh argues for the authorship of Quesnay's disciple and collaborator, Charles Richard de Butré, and that Quesnay was himself influenced by the Essai prior to its publication. However, a number of other bibliographical works (Barbier, INED, WorldCat) have continued to cite Quesnay as the author, an opinion convincingly supported in recent years by the New School.The Essai sur l'administration des terres is bound together with a first edition of L'art de cultiver les peupliers d'Italie by Pelée de Saint-Maurice, published in Paris in 1762. This short treatise provides readers with advice on cultivating the poplar tree which was introduced in France in 1745 and quickly became the preferred tree for river and canal banks.

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