Reading Olivier de Serres circa 1600: Between Economy and Ecology

Abstract

Formerly belonging to the literary canon of the French Renaissance, and often associated with the ideology of a return to the country—even to Maréchal Pétain’s Travail et Patrie—Olivier de Serres’s Théâtre d’agriculture et mesnage des champs (1600) remains a keystone in the history of agronomy. Threading the wisdom of ancient authors through his own experience, and staunchly Protestant in vision, Serres sets an agenda for the country gentleman and farmer. At once art and science, it deploys a limpid and vigorous style to argue for economy and productive management of the earth. This essay contends that today, despite its legacy, the work offers a vision and a savoury mode of writing vital to what we can make of ecology in the early modern age.