Olivier de Serres

Olivier de Serres (* 1539 in Villeneuve-de-Berg , † July 12, 1619 in Mirabel , today the Ardèche department ) was a French author, soil scientist , agronomist and agricultural reformer.

life and work

Serres, who is considered the father of French agriculture, managed a model estate in today's Ardèche department on a scientific and practical basis for forty years (Le Pradel bei Mirabel, acquired in 1558) and (at the insistence of King Henry IV ) put his experiences into one A thousand-page volume entitled “Compendium of Agriculture and Agriculture” ( Le théatre d'agriculture et ménage des champs , first 1600, to date 25 editions). This wide-ranging, pioneering handbook, in which viticulture and fruit growing also play a major role, contains a particularly innovative treatise on silkworm breedingwhich was immediately translated into German and English. The literary quality of the descriptions also secured the author a place in French literary history.

The Association Institut Olivier de Serres has existed in Mirabel since 1939 and maintains an information-rich website. The Le Pradel estate is now a museum, branch of an agricultural school, and rural campus of the University of Grenoble Alpes (UGA). In 1804 a memorial was erected to Serres in his birthplace. In Paris, a street in the 15th arrondissement bears his name. In Aubenas , a school named after him.

Works

Frontispiece of Le théatre d'agriculture et ménage des champs (Paris 1608)

• Le théatre d'agriculture et mesnage des champs, dans lequel est représenté tout ce qui est requis et nécessaire pour bien dresser, gouverner, enrichir et embellir la maison rustique , 2 vols., Grenoble, Dardelet, 1973.
• Le théâtre d'agriculture. Mesnage des champs , Geneva, Slatkine, 1991 (preface by Étienne Wolff ).
• Le théâtre d'agriculture et mesnage des champs d'Olivier de Serres, seigneur du Pradel, dans lequel est représenté tout ce qui est requis et nécessaire pour bien dresser, gouverner, enrichir et embellir la maison rustique , Arles, Actes Sud, 1997, 2001 (edition 1804–1805, omitting contemporary comments).
• Le livre de raison d'Olivier de Serres , ed. by Dominique Margnat, Grenoble, Presses universitaires, 2004.

Partial editions

• Silk worm. Of the species, nature, properties and great usability of the noble silk worm. Also planting and maintenance of the mulberry tree, which is highly demanded for its food. How and how much such wonderful work in Teutons (especially those countries where it has wine wax) at the same time may be done in other places and driven away with praise, benefit and fame. First described in French by Mr. Olivier de Serres, Messrs. Pradel. But now ... in the Teutsche Sprach most faithfully represented by Jacob Rathiegen Fürstlichen Württembergischen Cammer Secretarie, Tübingen, Cellius, 1603.
  • The perfect use of silk wormes . London 1607, Amsterdam, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum; New York, Da Capo Press, 1971.
• Escrit sur le vin, la vigne et autres gentillesses procédantes de raisin , Paris, A l'enseigne de Colbert, 1947.

Literature (selection)

• Karl Andernacht, The vocabulary in Olivier de Serres' "Le Theater d'Agriculture et Mesnage Des Champs" , Diss. Erlangen 1918.
• Olivier de Serres. Père de l'agriculture française 1539-1619 , Paris, Comité national Olivier de Serres, 1941.
• Autour d'Olivier de Serres. Pratiques agricoles et pensée agronomique. Part of agronomique. [Domaine] Le Pradel, September 28-29-30, 2000 , Paris, Académie d'Agriculture de France, 2001.
• Henri Gourdin, Olivier de Serres. "Science, experience, diligence", en agriculture au temps de Henri IV , Arles, Actes Sud, 2001.
• Jean Boulaine and Richard Moreau, Olivier de Serres et l'évolution de l'agriculture , Condé-sur-Noireau, L'Harmattan, 2002.

Manual literature

• Robert Horville, Le XVIe Siècle 1494–1598, in: Histoire de la littérature française , ed. by Henri Mitterand, Paris 1988, pp. 125–234 (here: p. 151).

Web links

• Literature by and about Olivier de Serres in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
• Institut Olivier de Serres (French)