Italian Gardens

Italian Gardens by Morgan, Keith N.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780881922738.

"The first steps of one interested in the formal style of landscape architecture should be directed to Italy." So wrote the great American designer Charles Platt in his introduction to his book, Italian Gardens, first published in 1894. Platts words proved influential. Devoted solely to the topic of the Italian villa landscape, the handsomely illustrated volume quickly found an eager readership among American architects, landscape designers, and their clients. As the first publication in English on the topic, Italian Gardens appealed to a public increasingly intrigued by the question of what the new American garden might look like. Platts book also turned a national spotlight on his own fledgling architectural career, transforming him into one of the most sought-after designers in the country. Perhaps no volume in the history of American landscape architecture has had so far-reaching an effect. The book offered far more than just specific design motifs to gardeners and architects. Elegant photographs painted a picture of a celebratory indoor/outdoor lifestyle. The text indirectly prescribed a specific relationship between the residential landscape and architecture. Platt saw the genius in the Italian concept of a garden as a series of rooms, or apartments, "where one," he reported, "might walk about and find a place suitable to the hour of the day and feeling of the moment, and still be in that sacred portion of the globe dedicated to ones self." American designers took Platts observations and images to heart, and made extensive use of them. Long out of print, Platts Italian Gardens is once again available in an historic edition with important additions. This new volume contains not only Platts original text and photographs, reproduced from the original glass plate negatives, but also twenty additional photographs taken by Platt on his Italian tour which were not included in the original 1894 edition. Keith Morgan, author of the definitive monograph on Platts architectural oeuvre, has contributed an essay to this new edition which places architect Platt and his book in the context of American landscape history. Illustrated by twenty-three photographs, plans, and drawings, Morgans deft survey captures the ebullience and grace of Platts own house and garden designs, and sheds considerable light on the making of one of Americas finest and most influential landscape designers.