After completion in 1668, the gardens at the Palace of Versailles (by André Le Nôtre) became renowned throughout Europe. Models of the gardens together with french gardeners and french landscape architects became popular with the elite across the continent. It was into this atmosphere that famous landscape designer/gardeners Michel Le Bouteux and André Le Nôtre released their Plans et Dessins Nouveaux de Jardinage in c. 1680-1690.
The short volume with 109 pages of copper plate engravings (quite a few are double pages) provided garden plans, example fountains and structural elements over which the francophilic gardening set could drool. Many, if not all of the fountain illustrations were copied from Italian Agostino Ramelli's 16th century automata / water-engineering book.
Missouri Botanical Gardens' Rare Books Department have Plans et Dessins Nouveaux de Jardinage available in a fast, smart interface. Another first class website.
No comments:
Post a Comment