[Rarebooks] FS: Agricultural spying in Mexico in 1777

[Norman Kane]

We can supply:

THIERY DE MENONVILLE, [NICOLAS JOSEPH].  TRAITE DE LA CULTURE DU NOPAL, ET 
DE L'EDUCATION DE LA COCHENILLE DANS LES COLONIES FRANCAISES DE L'AMERIQUE 
. . . [&] UN VOYAGE A GUAXACA . . .  Cap-Francais: la veuve Herbault & du 
Cercle des Philadelphes; Paris: Delalain; Bordeaux: Bergeret, 1787.
2 volumes bound together.  8vo, old worn quarter leather, spine worn, front 
cover gone.
Tear in one leaf of vol. I repaired ( no loss), approx. 35 pages in vol. ii 
with worming in the lower margins and a narrow worn trail about an inch 
long at the inner margin resulting in some loss, some soil spots on the 
later pages.  From the collection of Kurt A. Fisher, noted collector of 
Haitian material.  Cxliv, 261; [3], [262]-436; [2], 94, [2] pages.  There 
are 4 COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS on 2 folding plates.  The 4 pages of the 
Dedication occur on pp. cxix-cxxii.  The Table of Contents for vol. I 
occurs on the verso of Riii.  (Although first printed with a 1786 date, 
almost all copies are dated 1787 - see the lengthy note to Sabin 95349 
regarding the publishing history and variations of contents.  Thiery de 
Menonville, Botanist to the King,  journeyed in disguise from Haiti to 
Mexico to spy on the closely guarded secrets regarding the cochineal insect 
[highly regarded for the dye produced from it] and the propagation of  the 
nopal plant on which it fed.  He established the insects and nopal in the 
Jardin du Roi in Port au Prince but in the years after his death the 
cochineal disappeared from Haiti.)  Quite scarce.  $ 650.00


THE AMERICANIST (ABAA), 1525 Shenkel Road, Pottstown, Pa, USA, 
19465-7221.Telephone: 610 323 5289. email: nkane at kanebooks.com.
Proprietor: Norman Kane (50 years as an antiquarian bookseller.)