author
David Brossard
Best known for a compact early French guide to sowing, nurseries, and grafting, this little-known writer helped shape practical gardening literature in the 1500s. His work was influential enough to be adapted into English and kept circulating long after its first publication.
1 Audiobook
L'art et maniere de semer
by David Brossard
About the author
Very little biographical information about David Brossard is easy to confirm today, but surviving library and catalog records connect him with L'art et maniere de semer, a French horticultural manual first published in the mid-16th century.
The book focuses on hands-on cultivation: sowing seeds, raising young trees, and grafting fruit varieties. Later records also link his text to English gardening books that reused or adapted its advice, suggesting that his practical approach traveled beyond France and reached a wider audience of early modern gardeners.
Because so few personal details are securely documented, Brossard is best understood through the work itself: a clear, useful guide from the early history of gardening books, valued for its straightforward instruction on orchards, nurseries, and plant propagation.