Ruel, Jean (1479-1537) 
De nature stirpiiam libri tres, Parisiis, ex officina 
Simonis Colinaei, 1536. 884 p. F®, (Dept. Agr. etc) 
’’Jean Ruel, who was physician to Francois 1 
notes certain varieties of fruit trees with their 
coiTimon names in French together with many native 
and cultivated species.” - Gihault, ^5tude, p.71E. 
The book is dedicated by its author to "Fran¬ 
cois, first of that name, most Christian king of 
the Gauls." This monarch is credited with bring¬ 
ing Florentine gardeners into France, where they 
began to develop methods of gardening based on 
local conditions, and made some of the earliest 
contributions to the indigenous literature of 
the subject. See Savastano's discussion of the 
appendices to the first French version of Cre- 
scenzi, in Ann. R. Staz. Sper. Agriunic. e Frut- 
tic. Acireale, 6:110-115 (1922). Ruel’s names 
throw some light on the plant materials of the 
period, Altho Gibault refers to them as common 
names, they are usually somewhat Latinized, and 
the vernacular form is often hard to recognize. 
Ruel also, in the introductory part of his 
work, gives a few cultural directions: ”De hor- 
tensium semente, & quo tempore sata nascuntur” 
(p.49-56); "De insitione" (p.86-90) etc. 
Other issues of this book are: Basileae, in 
officina Frobeniana, 1537, 1543, and 1573, all 
in folio; end Venezia, per Bernardum Bindonum, 
2 V. in octavo. 
De Bure, Vol. de la Jurisprudence (1764), p. 
322-323, item 1558, notes the excellence of the 
1st ed, by Colinaeus, but says copies thereof 
are not very expensive. At the present time, 
this edition is located in most of the impor¬ 
tant botanical libraries and other large col¬ 
lections, while the later issues are somewhat 
less common. 
(MF.V-tfcy 12,1936) 
