
          103

Brossard, David

L'art & maniere de semer, & faire pepinieres des
sauluaigeaulx. Enter de toutes sortes darbres, & faire
vergiers. Auecques plusieurs aultres nouueaultez. Redige
& mys en escript par frere Dany, religieulx de labbaye
sainct Vincent, lez le Mans. Selon ce quil en a longuement 
esprouue & experimente en son temps, a faire dresser
les vergiers de ladicte abbaye. Et contient ledict liure
sept chappitres, come lon verra cy apres. An laudem insitionis 
distichon hesperidum càpi quicquid: romanaqz
tellus fructificat: nobis: insitione datur. Lyon, 0.
Amoullet [1543] [80] p. 13cm. (Dept.Agr.)

Signatures a-e8.

Colophon: Cy finist la maniere de enter &
plater. Imprime nouuellement a Lyon le xxviij.
de Mars. Mil. ccccc.xliij. par Oliuier Arnoullet.

Final 8 p. with caption title: "Sensuyt vng
petit traicte cóme ley peult subtillement enter 
& planter, & faire en iardins plusieurs
choses bien estranges."

Dupetit-Thouars, in Michaud, Biog. Univ.,
Nouv. éd., 5:611-612 (n.d.), discusses Brossard's 
"Traité", with its garbled later versions, 
one of which is in the "Quatre traictez"
of 1560. Gibault, Jour. Soc. Nat. Hort. France
(1905), p.726, devotes a paragraph to the book,
describing it as the work of an experienced
gardener, remarkably free from the superstitions 
of his age.

The name "Davy", commonly corrupted into
"Dany", obviously a mistake in transcribing
the manuscript, is of course taken from his
monastic name "Frére Davy", but modern authorities, 
including the Cat. Bib. Nat. Paris,
usually call the writer by, and enter under
his secular name, Brossard, David.

The edition of 1543 seems to be absolutely
unknown to bibliographers, but has every mark
of genuineness. Dupetit-Thouars, l.c., characterizes 
the 1560 ed. as garbled, presumably
meaning that it does not closely follow the
earlier texts, but on careful comparison one
        