This collection of essays explores the role of gardens in early modern academies and, conversely, the place of what might be called 'academic culture' in early modern gardens. While studies of botanical gardens have often focused on their association with a research institution, the intention of this book is deliberately broader, seeking to explore the interconnections between the built environment of the early modern garden and the more or less organised social and intellectual life it supported. As such, the book contributes to the intersection of several fields of research: garden history, literary history, architectural history and socio-political history, and considers the garden as a site of performance that requires an intermedial approach.
Denis Ribouillault is Professor of Early Modern Art History at the Université de Montréal, Canada. His research focuses on Renaissance villa culture, cultural landscapes and gardens, and the intersection of art, science, and literature. He has received numerous fellowships and has been a Visiting Professor at the Università Ca'Foscari (2018), the Università del Salento (2021), the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich (Panofsky Professorship, 2024), and the Université de Bordeaux (Chaire Montaigne, 2024). His most recent books include Jardiner / Gardening (Intermediality 35 (2020)) and The Villa Barbaro at Maser. Science, Philosophy and the Family in Venetian Renaissance Art (2023).
Acknowledgements List of Figures Note on the Editor Notes on the Contributors Note on the Translations
1 Introduction: “Atque inter silvas Academi quaerere verum” – Early Modern Gardens and the Academic Ideal Denis Ribouillault
2 The Green World of the Accademia Pontaniana: Conviviality, Horticulture, and Arcadia George Brocklehurst
3 Pomponio Leto and His Garden: New Evidence on Its Archaeological Context Alessia Dessì
4 Horti Colotiani: the Gardens of Angelo Colocci, the Casino del Bufalo and the Birthday of Rome Giorgio Mangani
5 The Unknown “Pleasure Grounds” of the Cardinals Colonna at the Abbey of Subiaco Tiziana Checchi
6 The Poetic Fortune of the Nymphaeum of Villa Giulia (with New Poems by Giovan Francesco Commendone) Denis Ribouillault
7 The “Academic” Plane Tree in Early Modern Gardens Denis Ribouillault
8 Academies and Gardens of the Faubourg Saint-Marcel in Paris (1550–1578) Laurent Paya
9 Festive Erudition: the Garden of Laurentius Scholz von Rosenau in Breslau (Wrocław) 1588–1599 Christiane Lauterbach
10 Botany and Academy: the Gardens of Cardinal del Monte in Late Sixteenth–Century Rome Alessandro Spila
11 Vitaliano Borromeo’s Academy of the Isola Bella Sergio Monferrini
12 Academicians and Their Gardens in Genoa in the First Half of the 17th Century Lauro Magnani
13 A Place Both Real and Imagined: Play, Performance and Narrative in the Gardens of the Arcadian Academy in Rome Katrina Grant
14 The Milanese Colony of the Arcadian Academy Maria Cristina Loi
Index Nominum
Postgraduate students and academics interested in garden history, literary history, architectural history and socio-political history. Keywords: gardens, Italy, Europe, academies, art history, architecture, literature.