The Italian Garden: Art, Design and Culture

Description

Italian gardens vary widely according to their historical date and geographic location. This collection of essays approaches Italian gardens of all periods, from the Middle Ages to modern times, and it ranges widely throughout the peninsula, from Genoa to Sicily, the Veneto to Liguria, and Ferrara to Florence. The authors are a distinguished group of Italian, American, English and German scholars, with different backgrounds in art history, literature, architecture, planning and cultural history. Their explorations of the subject from these different perspectives illuminate not only their own disciplines, but are concerned to make many interesting connections between garden art and the politics of nationalism, between the art of gardens and urban infrastructure, between cultural movements like freemasonry and site planning, between design and planting materials.

"...this collection of essays constitutes a welcome contribution to the fields of garden history and Italian studies. If one sign of good scholarship is that it both answers questions and opens doors to new ones, this collection is an outstanding example. It piques the reader's interest, provides glimpses into landscapes heretofore neglected and suggests new pathways for research and discovery." Dianne Harris, Journal of the Society of Architectural History "The Italian Garden is a beneficial addition to the list of books about Italy and its protracted garden tradition." Philip Pregill, Landscape Journal