The Compleat Gard'ner; or, Directions for Cultivating and right Ordering of Fruit-Gardens and Kitchen-Gardens; with divers Reflections on several Parts of Husbandry. In six Books To which is added his Treatise of Orange-Trees, with the Raising of Melons, omitted in the French Editions Illustrated with copper plates.

Folio, pp.I: [xliv], 106, [8(ff.'107–110')], 111–114, [8(ff.'115–117', '116')], 119–184, [4], 116, 137–204, [3], [1(blank)], 4, 80, with engraved frontispiece portrait and 11 engraved plates (of which 2 folding); 10 engraved vignettes and 4 woodcut illustrations in text, engraved vignette to p.162 omitted, title printed in red and black; closed tear to plate facing p.11, paper-flaw to upper outer corner of 1N1 (barely touching headline), a few short closed marginal tears, the odd minor stain, else a very good copy; bound in contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt in compartments, sympathetically rebacked with spine-piece largely relaid and gilt red morocco lettering-piece, endpapers renewed; a little scuffed and bumped; ownership inscriptions of Richard Musgrave and faint arithmetic calculation to title.First edition in English, translated by John Evelyn, of this splendidly illustrated work on fruit trees and gardening by the directeur général of Louis XIV's gardens, expanded to include the first appearance in print of Evelyn's treatises on orange trees and melons. Evelyn's translation expands on the French edition (1690), with the addition of Quintinie's Treatise of Orange-Trees and Some Directions concerning the Ordering of Melons, translated from a manuscript sent to Evelyn after Quintinie's visit to Sayes Court some thirty years previously; the texts are printed together as 'a large folio, almost the last of Evelyn's major publications' (Keynes). The large plates show the kitchen garden at Versailles, methods of pruning and grafting, and gardening tools, in addition to which 'A fine engraved portrait of the author was prefixed and the text was embellished with a charming series of small copper plates illustrating various garden activities of the period' (ibid.). The work was never reprinted in full, though it was abridged for an octavo edition of 1699, without reference to Evelyn and with his additions removed. Provenance: Richard Musgrave (1652–1727), of West Monkton, Somerset, was an elder brother of the physician and antiquary William Musgrave (1655–1721), Secretary to the Royal Society and editor of the Philosophical Transactions, nos 167–178. Richard died without issue and his library was inherited by Mary Musgrave (née Clarke), wife of his eldest nephew George Musgrave (1682–1724). ESTC R212118; Henrey 218; Hunt 388; Keynes 103; Wing L 431. Language: In translation.…