Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau (1700-1782) was born in Paris to an aristocratic family; he studied law but later pursued his real passion of botany. Following his scientific interest in botany, Duhamel du Monceau studied at the Jardin du Roi (later the Jardin du Plantes) and later became associated with the Academie des Sciences. He published several scientific books relating to fruits and other plants and the Traitè des Arbres Frutiers (1768) was among them. The original Traitè was not hand colored and the illustrations had an academic and scientific appearance. The Tratie de Arbres Fruitiers of 1807, or the Nouvelle Edition as it is known, was the independent successor to the original book but bears little resemblance to it. The Nouvelle was printed in the larger Folio size whereas the original was printed in Quarto size. The Nouvelle was illustrated by the celebrated botanical artists Pierre Antoine Poiteau and Pierre-Jean-Françoise Turpin in association with Langlois, the great French color-printer who oversaw much of Redoutè’s work . A very significant difference between the earlier and later editions is the stipple engraving in the Nouvelles (by Langlois) which serves to make the sumptuous fruit illustrations some of the most remarkable remarkable ever produced.
