A natural history of English gardening, 1650-1800 / Mark Laird.
Material type: TextPublisher: New Haven : Yale University Press, 2015Description: xix, 440 pages : illustrations (some color), maps, plans, portraits ; 30 cmISBN:- 9780300196368
- 0300196369
- SB457.6 .L35 2015
Item type | Current library | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lending Books | Elisabeth C. Miller Library Tall Shelves | SB468.36.G7 L25 2015 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 39352800157919 |
Browsing Elisabeth C. Miller Library shelves, Shelving location: Tall Shelves Close shelf browser (Hides shelf browser)
SB468.36.G7 J23 2017 Gardens of court and country : English design, 1630-1730 / | SB468.36.G7 J66 2000 Lost gardens / | SB468.36.G7 K44 1989 The glory of the English garden / | SB468.36.G7 L25 2015 A natural history of English gardening, 1650-1800 / | SB468.36.G7 L27 1992 The English park : royal, private & public / | SB468.36.G7 L49 2009 Everything you can do in the garden without actually gardening / | SB468.36.G7 L66 2012 The London Square : gardens in the midst of town / |
"Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art by Yale University Press."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction -- Purity in the parsley bed -- Nursing pretty monsters -- Retaliating favours and taking up cudgels -- Cornucopia -- Fair play for their lives -- Virtu -- Aftermath.
Inspired by the pioneering naturalist Gilbert White, who viewed natural history as the common study of cultural and natural communities, Mark Laird unearths forgotten historical data to reveal the complex visual cultures of early modern gardening. Ranging from climate studies to the study of a butterfly's life cycle, this original and fascinating book examines the scientific quest for order in nature as an offshoot of ordering the garden and field. Laird follows a broad series of chronological events - from the LIttle Ice Age winter of 1683 to the drought summer of the volcanic 1783 - to probe the nature of gardening and husbandry, the role of amateurs in scientific disciplines, and the contribution of women as gardener-naturalists. Mary Delany's prolific and breathtaking botanical collages, when analysed alongside the duchess of Portland's shell studies, show female accomplishment elevated to the foundational work of the virtuosa. Illustrated by a stunning wealth of visual and literary materials - paintings, engravings, poetry, essays and letters, as well as prosaic household accounts and nursery bills - Laird fundamentally transforms our understanding of the English garden as a powerful cultural expression and as a vulnerable natural web of life. -- from dust jacket.