Gillet de Laumont, François Pierre Nicolas (1747-1834)

Extrait d'un Manuscrit de M. De Malesherbes sur les plantes D'amerique avec quelques observations de M. Fougeroux de Bondaroy. Paris In several hands; l. I, ll. 4-23, in the hand of the mineralogist François Pierre Nicolas Gillet de Laumont [1747-1834]. L. 1 records in detail how the original MS by Lamoignon de Malesherbes, Observations sur quelques arbres et plantes d'Amerique qui meritent d'etre employées en europe, pour des usages plus importans que l'ornement des jardins, the result of over 30 years work, came to be passed to Gillet de Laumont by the botanist, agronomist, geologist and archaeologist Fougeroux de Bondaroy. L. 2 comprises the covering letter dated 9th June 1785 in the hand of Fougeroux de Bondaroy allowing Gillet de Laumont to make a copy of the Malesherbes MS. The plants described are less of medical than of general botanical and economic interest.

1785

101 ll. 21 x 15.5 cm; 19th cent. 1/2 morocco; margins slightly cropped.

Purchased at Sotheby's 24.6.1919

François Pierre Nicolas Gillet de Laumont (1747-1834) was a mineralogist, botanist and agronomist; Chrétien Guillaume de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (1721-1794) was a lawyer, politician, botanist and agronomist. Lamoignon de Malesherbes later acted as counsel for the defence of Louis XVI. All three men associated with the document (the two above plus the geologist and archaeologist Fougeroux de Bondaroy) were members of the Académie des Sciences, with strong interests in botany and agriculture.

Phillipps MS. No. 11799.

Described in: Robin Price, An Annotated Catalogue of Medical Americana in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1983).