L'ostréiculture en Bretagne de 1850 à nos jours.

Brittany 101 Guillet, Jacques et Ronan. L'ostréiculture en Bretagne de 1850 à nos jours. Spézet: Coop Breizh, 2008, 321 pages, illustrations, many in color, bib, index. A large, heavy volume, 9 ½" x 11 ½" in dust jacket. The book and the jacket are in very good condition although there is a dent on the bottom corner of the back cover, which measures about half inch wide and half inch tall. A very uncommon and fascinating book. $100.00

Oyster farming was practiced by the ancient Romans as early as the 1st century BC on the Italian peninsula. (See James Higginbotham. Piscinae: Artificial Fishponds in Roman Italy, for more info on Roman Piscinae).With the Barbarian invasions the oyster farming in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic came to an end. In fact, the Romans were the very first to cultivate oysters. The Roman engineer Sergius Orata is known for his innovative ways of breeding and commercializing oysters. He did this by cultivating the mollusk with a system that could control the water levels.

In 1852 Monsieur de Bon started to re-seed the oyster beds by collecting the oyster spawn using makeshift catchers. An important step to the modern oyster farming was the oyster farm built by Hyacinthe Boeuf in the Ile de Ré. After obtaining the rights to a part of the coast he built a wall to make a reservoir and to break the strength of the current. Sometime later the wall was covered with spat coming spontaneously from the sea which gave 2000 baby oysters per square metre.