The guide for forest rangers under the First Empire
in a superb binding by Tessier bearing Napoleon’s arms.
Paris, 1808.
Baudrillart, J.J. New Forest Manual, for the use of agents of all grades, Surveyors, Guards of Imperial and Communal Woods, officials of the Navy for the research of Woods suitable for Naval Constructions; Owners and Merchants of Woods, and all those involved in the Culture of Wood and its Use in Economic Arts…
Paris, chez Arthus-Bertrand, 1808.
2 volumes in 2 octavo volumes of I/ lii pp., 460 pp., 2 folding tables; II/ (2) ff., 579 pp., 29 plates including 4 folding ones, 3 folding tables. Long-grain red morocco, gilded roulette framing around the boards, large arms stamped in gold at the center, smooth spines finely decorated, decorated edges, blue silk guards and endpapers, gilded inner roulette, gilded edges. Binding of the time signed by Tessier with his coat of arms stamped in gold on the endpaper.
203 x 124 mm.
First and only French edition of this scientific and technical manual of the imperial administration, translated and adapted by Jacques-Joseph Baudrillart (1774-1832) based on a reference book written by Friedrich August Ludwig von Burgsdorf (1747-1802), a German forest specialist, renowned throughout Europe.
The work was intended to unify and codify the work of forest rangers which, under the Ancien Régime, was more about hereditary or purchasable responsibilities than functions requiring genuine skills.
The first volume contains a précis on the forest code, a general section on natural history, and the description of several hundred plant species found in forests and woods. In the second volume, there are chapters containing introductions to geometry, mechanics, and construction, both civil and naval. Wood is considered from the perspective of preserving natural heritage and its uses in serving civil society and the armies of the Empire.
Jacques-Joseph Baudrillart, agronomist and forester, maintained his functions under the Restoration and published The Forest Code (1827) then The Fishing Code (1829).
He was one of the most active propagandists of German methods. Engaged as early as 1792 as a non-commissioned officer in the Ardennes battalion, initially employed in field hospitals, he discovered Germany in 1801 before joining the forestry administration. Convinced of the technical advancement of German silviculture, he undertook in subsequent years the translation of works by Georg-Ludwig Hartig (1805 and 1807) and Friedrich-August-Ludwig von Burgsdorf (1808). Appointed in 1819 as head of the division at the Water and Forests administration, he was at the origin of the dissemination of the thinning method and remained one of the main architects of the creation of the Royal School of Water and Forests in 1824.
The work is illustrated with 29 engraved plates and 5 folding tables.
Superb copy preserved in a very fresh binding signed by Tessier with the arms of Napoleon O.H.R. pl. 2652, iron no.7).
Successor of Lemonnier, Tessier was a bookbinder for the Duke of Orleans before the Revolution, then for the Imperial Treasury.
Napoleon loved books, continuously educating himself. A great reader, without being a bibliophile, he enriched his residences (Malmaison, Fontainebleau, Compiègne… and Saint Helena) with libraries, having them even transported on battlefields, and loved to offer books.
