Main entry:

Laird, Mark.

Title & Author:

A natural history of English gardening, 1650-1800 / Mark Laird.

Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, 2015.

Description:

xix, 440 pages : illustrations (some color), maps, plans, portraits ; 30 cm

Notes:
"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.
Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries (CBHL) Annual Literature Award Nominee, 2016

Summary:

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.

ISBN:

9780300196368 (cl ; alk. paper)
0300196369 (cl ; alk. paper)

Subject:

Gardens, English History.
Gardens, English History Pictorial works.
Jardins anglais Histoire.
Jardins anglais Histoire Ouvrages illustrés.
76.41 gardening.
Gardens, English
Gartenbau
Landschaftsgarten
Trädgårdar.
Historia.
Gardening.
Great Britain Social life and customs History.
Great Britain History.
Grande-Bretagne Histoire.
Grande-Bretagne Mœurs et coutumes Histoire.
Great Britain
Großbritannien
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Landscaping.
Horticulture.

Form/genre:

illustrated books.
Illustrated works
History
Ouvrages illustrés.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 289658
Call No.: BIB 232244
Status: Available