Italian Gardens of the Renaissance

SHEPHERD AND JELLICOE'S masterly study, originally written in 1925, still stands today as the classic work on the subject. The history of the Italian garden reflects the rich pageant of Renaissance thought: the rapid rise, the sixteenth-century culmination, and the decline over 200 years. The book traces the evolution and development of Italian garden design from the early Renaissance work of Michelozzi, Rossellino and Bramante, its culmination in the Villas Madama, Este, Medici and Vignola's Villas Orti Farnesiana, Papa Giulio, Caprarola and Villa Lante, the work of Scamozzi, Borromini, Ammanati, Palladio, San Gallo, through the Baroque to the abandonment of Renaissance ideals in the eighteenth century. The book also treats of the design of the Italian garden, its formal elaboration from the cloister garden through a series of connecting rooms to a layout suggestive of a miniature town with avenues, squares and vistas carefully arranged to produce dramatic effects. Altogether the gardens of twenty-six of the finest and most important Italian villas are featured, each with plan and principal elevation drawings and supported by photographic details of the villas as well as the gardens.