The History of Garden Design: The Western Tradition from the Renaissance to the Present Day

The gardener labors to harmonize nature's most subtle forms with his or her own most elaborate plans. Gardens present a succession of ever-rephrased dialogues between nature and culture, design and delight, work and play. Yet they are also mutable and fragile, vulnerable to the rigors of the changing seasons. The most stimulating thought and research on the history of the garden from the fifteenth century to the present day are organized chronologically here in sections that cover the humanist garden in Renaissance Italy; the Baroque garden and classical park; picturesque, arcadian, and sublime gardens of the Enlightenment; mazes, grottoes, and other curiosities; town and city parks; and even Disneyland. In each section, individual gardens are analyzed as paradigms of their type: the Hortus Palatinus in Heidelberg, the Parc Monceau in Paris, Stowe in England, and many others, including contemporary gardens designed by Roberto Burle Marx, Ian Hamilton Finlay, and Geoffrey Jellicoe. Many hitherto unrecorded examples are detailed, and well-known aspects of the history of the garden are reinterpreted from totally new perspectives. The essays are supported by paintings, reliefs, and drawings as well as figurative illustrations and photographs. A specially commissioned series of fifty-one plans of each epoch's most significant gardens completes this monumental survey of the evolution of the Western garden. Published in hardcover under the title The Architecture of Western Gardens.

A major resource in the field. -- Library Journal

If you wish to acquaint yourself with the full panoply of recent research in garden history, then I cannot recommend too highly this . . . lavish compilation. -- New York Times Book Review

Treat the book itself like some great park and plan several long tours round favorite spots, making excursions into adjacent areas and having a rest from time to time among the footnotes. -- London Review of Books