LOT-ET-GARONNE. Manuscript, Registre des délibérations de la Société d'Agriculture, Sciences et Arts de Villeneuve sur Lot, 1819-1842; one vol. in-fol. of 61 ff. (3 ff. missing, qqs. ff. unbound, plus 76 ff. blank), old worn boards, traces of laces. An interesting account of agricultural, cultural and social life in Villeneuve-sur-Lot in the early 19th century. Founded in 1819 at the request of the prefect and modelled on the counterpart society in Agen, the society's founding members included a former noble deputy to the Constituent Assembly, the Marquis de Bourran, who, along with the Duc d'Aiguillon, was one of the first to join the Tiers. The volume gives a full transcription of the first statutes (1819) and those promulgated under the July monarchy (June 1833, incomplete from the beginning), at a time when the association was in danger of being dissolved for lack of member attendance. In the meantime, under the Restoration, it had been dealing with both agricultural issues, with a variety characteristic of this polycultured region (plow improvements with trials of new models; comparative trials of wine-making machines; comparison of Baltimore corn with already acclimatized species; awards to the best local breeders; motivations for tenant farmers discouraged by year-round land rental systems; encouragement for artificial meadows; too-early castration of bulls; transmission in the arrondissement of various seeds sent by the Ministry, etc.), and literary subjects (the use of the word "plow" in the French language; the use of the word "plow" in the French language; the use of the word "plow" in the French language; the use of the word "plow" in the French language; the use of the word "plow" in the French language; the use of the word "plow" in the French language).), as well as literary subjects (reading of an elegy on country life; an eulogy of the Duc de Berry after his assassination; verbatim transcription of an elegy on the death of Louis XVI read in 1824), historical (location of the birthplace of Louis le Débonnaire; research on antiquities and the religious wars in the region....) or scientific (reports on vaccinia, on the disposal of wastewater from the Eysses detention center, on the best location for a new hospital, on the opposition between the doctrines of Hippocrates and those of Broussais...). In contrast to this intense activity under the Restoration, activity under the July Monarchy seems to have focused on the distribution of prizes to owners of the arrondissement's finest bulls and heifers, with the rhythm of meetings, monthly until 1833, shifting accordingly to one per quarter, then one per year when medals were awarded. The obituaries of deceased members, transcribed in extenso in the register, also provide an interesting insight into the "ruling classes" (landowners, magistrates, soldiers, doctors, elected representatives...)...