Venette, Nicolas. Traité du rossignol, qui enseigne la manière de les connaître & de les élever ; leurs inclinations, leurs maladies, & les remèdes qu’il faut observer pour les guérir.
A Paris, chez Charles de Sercy, au Palais, au sixième pillier de la Grand’Sale, vis-à-vis la Montée de la cour des Aides, à la Bonne-Foi couronnée, [1697]. Avec privilège du roy.
– [Preceded by] : Mancini. Instruction pour élever, nourrir, dresser, instruire & panser toutes sortes de petits Oiseaux de Volière que l’on tient en Cage pour entendre chanter. Avec un petit Traité pour les Maladies des Chiens […]
Paris, Charles de Sercy, 1697.
2 parts in 1 volume 12mo of (12)-84, (8)-82-(2) pp. and one folding plate. Full ivory vellum, flat spine. Contemporary binding.
151 x 87 mm.
First edition of Venette’s Traité du Rossignol, which discovered the charm of the nightingale at an older age: “It is a marvel of nature that the Nightingale, being such a small bird, should have such a loud voice, and that it should sing for so long without losing its breath. There is no music so perfect, nor instruments so sweet & so harmonious, that men have invented, that this bird does not imitate by its small throat.”
Thiébaud 630; Schwerdt I-262; not in Barbier, Nissen, ZBI and Die illustrierten vogelbücher, Anker.
Nicolas Venette was a medical doctor and professor of anatomy and surgery at La Rochelle, born there around 1632 and died in 1698.
“Elderly people who find it difficult to leave the bedroom, ask only for innocent amusements to soothe the discomforts of their age: & often they find none more agreeable than those which satisfy the sense of hearing by the harmonious song of birds; at least this is what has been my weakness, & still is today, if the inclination I have for the Nightingale at the end of my life is to be so called. My sedentary state has made me consider this bird with such exactitude, that I don’t think anyone has spoken of it in such a way, & who has known it as I have in all its ways; because I have examined it thoroughly, & that my inconveniences have given me the leisure to discover all its inclinations, & all the most particular things I have noticed concerning this bird in the Treatise I am making of it.”
The first treatise deals with linnets, goldfinches, finches, canaries, larks, etc., with a particular focus on nightingales. The “Traité sur les chiens” deals with a variety of issues, including “Pour rendre l’odorat aux chiens”, “pour connaître si les chiens deviendront mouchetez“, “Pour guérir les chiens mordus par le renard, ou par un chien enragé.”
“The author sets out to teach those who love this innocent amusement, how they should be put in the Cage, & kept there properly, what they should be fed.
The Traité des maladies des Chiens is very curious; & shows how to cure them. When they have lost their sense of smell, either because they have become too fat, or because of some other accident, so that they can no longer smell, as they used to, they should be purged with two large quantities of Agaric, & a mineral salt crushed, & pulverized together. Experience has shown that this gives them back their sense of smell, just as they had it before. (Le Journal des Savants, 1698, p. 108).
Very rare early work on raising and training birds, as well as treating illnesses in dogs.
First published in 1671 with the title La méthode d’élever, nourrir et guérir toute sorte d’oseaux de ramage, composée en italien par Cesar Mancini Romain, et traduite nouvellement en français par A.S.D.L.P.M.D.C.E.S. 1671, but this first edition was without the tract on dogs.
A very attractive volume preserved in its first contemporary vellum binding, an extremely rare condition.
