Jean Baptiste de La Quintinie

Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie (1 March 1626 – 11 November 1688) was a French lawyer, gardener and agronomist who served under Louis XIV. Named director of the royal fruit and vegetable gardens by the king in 1670, La Quintinie created the potager du roi ("King's vegetable garden") for the Palace of Versailles between 1678 and 1683.

Biography Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie was born on 1 March 1626, in Chabanais, Angoumois, France. He was the second of the three sons of Guillaume de La Quintinie, a tax prosecutor, and Françoise Morand, a daughter of a surgeon family. He studied at the Jesuit college of Poitiers. Destined for a legal career, he continued his education at the Faculty of Law of the same town. He then left his native region for Paris where he became a lawyer at the Parliament.

In Paris, La Quintinie was praised for his writing skills and was tasked with instructing the only son of Jean Tambonneau, president of the general accounting office. La Quintinie accompanied the son on a trip to Italy thumb Potager du roi, VersaillesLa Quintinie visited England twice and earned the esteem of King James II, who offered him the job of managing his gardens. The Frenchman declined the offer, preferring to return to his home country. Following the disgrace of the superintendent of finance (Nicolas Fouquet) in 1661, Louis XIV gave La Quintinie the job of designing and managing the Versailles vegetable garden. Once the nine-hectare site had been drained and filled in, :9 it was divided into a central square and 29 enclosed gardens.