Origin and history of Barbu

Can anyone tell me anything about where the game Barbu originated, and how
old it is?

Also, amongst the many versions of the game there seem to be two distinct
groups:
- What I think is the older form, where the contracts are played in a
pretermined order.
- The game played (so far as I know) mainly by Bridge players, where the
dealer chooses the contract, and has to select each of the contracts once.

Assuming that the second form was derived from the first, can anyone tell me
when this took place, and who was involved?  I think the game became popular
amongst Bridge players in the 1960s or 1970s.  I'm interested in whether a
group of Bridge players took the older game and added an auction to it, or
if the game had already been adapted in this way before it reached the
Bridge world.

Finally, can anyone tell me who first introduced Barbu to Bridge players?
(I realise that this question might be more usefully posted in
rec.games.bridge, so I'll probably try there too.)

Thanks

Andy Bowles