Commentaire sur l’ordonnance des eaux et foréts, Du mois d’Août 1669.
Paris: Father Debure, 1772. First edition.
Duodecimo (6 7/16” x 3 13/16”, 164mm x 97mm): binder’s blank, a12 (–a12) A–X12 Y6, binder’s blank [12s $6 signed; –a1, a2, 6s $3 signed]. 269 leaves, pp. i–iv (half-title, blank, title, blank) v–vii (3pp. table of contents) viii (blank) ix–xix (11pp. preface) [3] (2pp. copyright, approbation) 1 2–512 [4] (4pp. catalog). With woodcut vignettes, headpieces, and tailpieces.
Bound in mottled calf. On the spine, 5 raised bands. Abbreviated title gilt to red morocco in the second panel. All edges of the text-block stained red. Presented with a pink silk ribbon marker.
Craquelure to the boards and spine; chipping to the extremities. Tail of the backstrip perished. Front joint cracked and rear joint rubbed. Paper flaw to the rear binder’s blank. Presentation inscription reading, “Gifford Pinchot / With the Compliments / and Regards of [M…?] Drinker. / Nov 2/20” to the recto of the front binder’s blank. Scattered graphite marginalia throughout. Collated complete against Bibliothèque National de France.
A passage in Michaud's Biographie universelle describes Daniel Jousse (1704–1781) as “more of a commentator than a jurist.” Although successful in his day-job as a magistrate, Jousse penned a staggering number of treatises and commentaries on occurrences outside the courthouse. Something of a Renaissance man, Jousse wrote on the study of stars, the history of his hometown (Orléans), spiritual responsibility, fiefdom in Medieval France, and a bounty of other esoteric publications released anonymously. Commentaire sur l’ordonnance des eaux et foréts was his most commercially successful work, seeing five reprints in ten years with no changes to the text from edition to edition. In his preface, Jousse indicates that he extensively consulted with authors who had preceded him on the matter, such as Saint-Yon, Chauffour, Rousseau, Noël, and Gallon.
The Forestry Ordinance of 1669 (“sur le fait des Eaux et Forêts") was proclaimed by Louis XIV in an attempt to protect and restore France’s timber resources and forestry heritage. Population growth, fragmented local forestry practice, and military timber usage throughout the Thirty Years’ War had left French forests patchy and depleted, resulting in a dire scarcity of mature wood suitable for infrastructure and fuel. The ordinance saw real success, with structural recovery observable in Jousse’s lifetime as coppices for firewood and reseeding operated on 10-50 year cycles (high forests that yielded oak and beech timber were on a longer, century long rotation schedule).
The exploitation of French forests and subsequent timber crisis loomed large in the minds of conservationists living through periods of rapid industrialism — even today, collecting firewood for personal use in France is cause for citation — which makes this little tome an especially suitable gift for its previous owner, Gifford Pinchot. Pinchot (1865–1946) was an American conservationist and politician known as the "father of American forestry." Pinchot served as Governor of Pennsylvania from 1931 to 1935 and left a monumental legacy in environmental policy; he founded the Yale School of Forestry, became the first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, and championed sustainable management of natural resources for public benefit as a close aide to President Theodore Roosevelt.
Bibliothèque National de France F-26135
Cataloged by G.R. Murdock
Item #GRM0057
Price: $475