Recueil de Planches: Agriculture et Economie Rustique [Rural and Peasant Life and Industry in 18th Century France] for the Engravings from Denis Diderot and Jean Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert: Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. First edition.

Paris: Chez Briasson, David & Le Breton, 1762-1767.. 395 x 255 mm. with 18 pages of letterpress descriptionsRustic economy. Rustic economy is the art of knowing the useful and profitable products of the countryside, appropriating and conserving them, and drawing the greatest possible advantage from them. This method of enriching oneself has unlimited scope: it is a tax imposed on all matter, even on the elements. A simple exposition of the subjects embraced by the term ‘rustic economy’ would be a considerable undertaking. [1] These are the primary ones: whoever wishes to live in the countryside and profit from his stay there should know the arts of agriculture and gardening in the finest detail. He should be ignorant of nothing which pertains to the buildings he requires for himself and his family, servants, animals, and various crops; hunting, fishing, and falconry; stud farms, water, and forests; rustic work, and the manufacture of a variety of products such as stoneware, pottery, lime, brick, iron, etc. Although a man who devotes himself entirely to such pursuits is scorned by the common man, these activities are all in accordance with nature, sound health, the broadening of useful knowledge, the elevation of the mind, a simple life, a taste for good things, virtue, the commonweal, integrity, and good sense. For those subjects which pertain to rustic economy, consult sections of this dictionary and articles: Hunting, Fishing, Agriculture, Pheasantry, Falconry, Gardening, Soil cultivation, etc.