The University of Adelaide Library
THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE
SA 5005
Telephone: +61 8 8313 5759
Facsimile: +61 8 8313 4369
Email: library@adelaide.edu.au
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Garden books in the Special Collections of the Barr Smith
Library
Ancient gardens
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Although very few descriptions of ancient gardens have survived,
recreations can be found in the copperplate engravings of Giacomo
Lauro's vellum bound Antiquae
Urbis Splendoris ... printed in Rome in 1615. His views of
Rome include the simple walled garden of Lucellus, the famous
Epicurean, and the beautiful enclosed formal garden of the poet
Ovid as imagined from his description written while in exile. |
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Mediaeval gardens
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Similarly, illuminated manuscript illustrations are invaluable for
providing documentary evidence of mediaeval gardens. While our
funds do not run to original texts, we can still enjoy the colour,
detail and liveliness of mediaeval life through reproductions. The
Tres Riches Heures du Duc de
Berry (ca. 1409-1416) illuminated by Pol de Limbourg and his
brothers provides the earliest surviving representations of actual
mediaeval gardens, and the Hours
of Etienne Chevalier (ca. 1453) illuminated by Jean Fouquet
depicts a sunken garden and bowers in detail. The Grimani Breviary (ca. 1510)
illustrated by artists of the school of Ghent and Ruges has long
been acclaimed for its realistic detail of contemporary
gardens. |
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