
          214a

Dezallier d'Argenville, Antoine Joseph (1680-1765)

La théorie et la pratique du jardinage. 1709 et seq.

Michaud, Biog. Univ. 11:274-276 (1814), gives
an account of the vicissitudes of this work, but
neither this nor the statement of Gibault, Étude
(1905), p.737-738, quite agrees with the evidence
of the editions examined. Michaud intimates that
it was originally signed with the initials:  "L.S.
A.J.D.A.", for which the printer substituted the
name Le Blond, apparently in the 1st ed., while
Gibault definitely says the 1st ed. appeared under 
these initials, which were replaced by the
spurious name in the 2d ed., 1713. As a matter
of fact, the 1st ed., Paris, J. Mariette, 1709
(copy in the Dept. Agr.), contains no trace of
the author’s identity, unless it may have been
suggested in some missing preliminary leaf. The
"Approbation" shows the name of Mariette alone.

The ed. of La Haye, Pierre Husson, 1711, is
probably a reprint of that of Paris, 1709, and
is likewise without the author's name. Probably
this is also the case with the ed. of Amsterdam,
1711, which is entered by the Brit. Mus. under
its title, without any attribution whatever. The
total anonymity of the original ed. is also suggested 
by the fact that the 1st English edition,
London, 1712, in default of the author's name,
is often entered under that of the translator,
John James; while the 2d English ed., which includes 
in its title the name Alexander Le Blond,
is commonly entered under the latter.

So far as has been discovered, the first use
of the initials "L.S.A.J.D.A." was in the "Nouv.
éd.", Paris, J. Mariette, 1713, and they are also
in Husson's reprint. La Haye, 1715. Cat. Bib. Nat.
40:215, according to its custom, includes the initials 
in the title of the book, following them by
the true name in brackets. It is impossible for
me to tell just when the name Le Blond was introduced, 
as none of the issues between 1715 a nd 1722
have been examined, nor are they fully described in
        