Italian Gardens : A History

by Helena AttleePhotographs by Alex Ramsay

• ISBN13: 9780711226470
• ISBN10: 0711226474
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2006-11-01
• Publisher: Frances Lincoln

Summary

To many of us, the great gardens of Italy seem like paradise on earth. Butow much do we know of their history, and the people who created them? Inhis ravishing new book, illustrated with contemporary paintings, drawingsnd prints as well as photographs of the gardens today, Helena Attlee tellsheir story. She starts with Petrarch - still looking to medieval chroniclesor advice on how and when to plant - and goes on to the Renaissance andhose first gardens to emerge from architects' plans. Then she describes thereat gardens of the Medici; the first botanic gardens; the weird Manneristardens and their grottoes followed by the Baroque splendour of Isola Belland the Villa Aldobrandini; the Neoclassical and Picturesque gardens of theighteenth and nineteenth centuries; and how, in the twentieth century,xpatriates with money to lavish on their villas and gardens brought newelights.

Table of Contents

Cultivated ideas: Early Renaissance 1450-1504	p. 49
Medici gardeners: Renaissance 1518-1550	p. 25
Botanical revolution: Botanical gardens and treatises 1536-1600	p. 41
Musical statues: High Renaissance 1560-1573	p. 51
Esoteric jokes: Mannerism 1550-1580	p. 75
Formal splendour: Baroque 1598-1786	p. 91
Horticultural extremes: Plant collections 1600-1700	p. 117
Watering the guests: Garden entertainments 1530-1850	p. 131
Foreign influence: English and French style 1696-1783	p. 155
International style: European fashions 1800-1867	p. 181
An open ending: The modern garden 1902-1968	p. 191
Epilogue	p. 223
Bibliography	p. 225
Gardens to visit	p. 229
Picture acknowledgement
Index	p. 235
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.