Garden Museum

Room 8 – Literature on garden design

Since the Renaissance at the latest, there have been numerous writings on the practical and theoretical aspects of laying out a garden. The precursors of garden literature are the botanical works of the late Middle Ages, which primarily describe the healing properties of the individual plants.

The books dealing with garden design in the narrower sense concentrate on aesthetic aspects and formulate the rules of the various style epochs. Thus the famous garden tract of Dezallier d'Argenville from the early 18th century describes the principles of the formal garden; the books of Humphry Repton explain the design of landscape gardens. The garden books on the one hand reflected the progress of garden design and on the other helped popularize and develop the various styles.

The plant books written in the 19th century deal with the plants primarily according to their decorative merits.