Tuscan and Italian formal Gardens: a Bibliography

Platt, Charles A.; Morgan, Keith, N.: Italian Gardens (1884, revised edition Thames and Hudson, 1993)

Wharton, Edith: Italian Villas and Their Gardens (Century, 1904)

Elgood, George S.: Italian Gardens (Longmans, Green, 1907)

Cartwright, Julia: Italian gardens of the Renaissance and other studies (Smith Elder, 1914)

Eberlein, Harold Donaldson: Villas of Florence and Tuscany (Lippincott, 1925)

Shepherd, C; Jellicoe, G.A.: Italian Gardens of the Renaissance: (Alec Tiranti, 1953)

Masson, Georgina: Italian Gardens (Thames and Hudson, 1961)

Acton, Harold; Zielcke, Alexander: The Villas of Tuscany (Thames and Hudson, 1984)

Chatfield, Judith: Tour of Italian Gardens (Rizzoli, 1988)

Clarke, Ethne;  Bencini, Raffaello: Gardens of Tuscany (Rizzoli, 1990)

Pool, Janet; Albrizzi, Alessandro: Gardens of Florence (Rizzoli, 1992)

Cresti, Carlo; Listri, Massimo: Villas of Tuscany (Vendome Press, 1992)

Bencini, Raffaello;  Bajard, Sophie: Villas and Gardens of Tuscany (Terrail, 1993)

Hobhouse, Penelope: Garden Lover's Guide to Italy (Mitchell Beazley / Princeton Architectural Press, 1998) This concise, well-illustrated guide book is highly recommended by your web master.

Russell, Vivian: Edith Wharton's Italian Gardens (Art & Architecture, 1998)

Attlee, Helena; Ramsey, Alex: Italian Gardens (Ellipsis Arts, 2001)

Pozzana, Mariachiara: I giardini di Firenze e della Toscana. Guida completa (Giunti, 2001)

Bernandi , Judith: Italian Gardens (Rizzoli, 2002)

Sgaravatti, Mariella; Ciampi, Mario: Tuscany Artists Gardens (Verba Volant, 2005)

Attlee, Helena: Italian Gardens: From Petrarch to Russell Page (Frances Lincoln, 2006)


Italian Gardens
Judith Wade 

Italian Gardens

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Since the earliest Roman settlements, Italians have been expertly cultivating their land into beautiful and creative displays of nature, combining terraces and walkways, plants and flowers, water and statuary. The Italian garden has greatly evolved throughout the ages. Early Italian gardens made use of citrus, the ancient art of the topiary was revived in the Renaissance, and the refined parterre was developed to spread forth from the great palazzos and provide a dramatic view from their upper stories. Later, in the nineteenth century, the influence of the English garden took hold, with its meandering paths, asymmetrical lakes, and blossoming trees. In Italian Gardens, Wade explores more than five hundred years of the Italian garden tradition, introducing the reader to thirty-seven of the most captivating gardens of Italy, in eleven regions are visited, from Lombardy and Piedmont in the north, to the island of Sicily in the south. 


Italian Gardens: A Guide
Helena Attlee & Alex Ramsey

Italian Gardens

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For more than 500 years the gardens of Italy been irresistibly attractive. Many of the greatest artists and architects of the Renaissance were employed in their design and ornamentation. Italian Gardens is a practical and beautifully illustrated guide to more than 60 of the finest examples, from the seventeenth-century gardens of Castello d'Aglie in Piedmont to the thirteenth-century Moorish garden of the Villa Rufolo in Campania. This book provides histories and descriptions, as well as detailed information on locations, facilities, opening times, and accessibility.

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Tuscan Gardens: a Directory

List of gardens discussed and described by:
J C Shepherd and G A Jellicoe: Italian Gardens of the Renaissance


Villa Medici, Fiesole
Villa Madama, Rome
Villa Celsa, near Siena
Villa d'Este Tivoli
Villa Pia, Vatican Gardens
Palazzo Farnese, Caprarola
Villa Piccolomini, Frascati
Villa Lante, Bagnaia, near Viterbo
Boboli Gardens, Florence
Villa Bombicci (Collazzi), near Florence
Villa Capponi, Arcetri, Florence
Palazzo Podesta Genoa
Villa Bernardini, Saltocchio, Lucca
Villa Marlia, near Lucca
Villa Torlonia, Frascati
Villa Gamberaia, Settignano, near Florence
Villa Poggio Torselli
La Pietra, near Florence
Villa Corsi-Salviati, Sesto near Florence
Villa Palmieri, near Florence
Villa Garzoni, Collodi, Pescia, near Lucca
Villa Cetinale, near Siena
Villa Cuzzano, near Verona
Villa Dona Dalle Rose, Valzanzibio, near Padua
Villas Gori and Geggiano, near Siena
Villa Crivelli, Inverigo, near Milan
Collegio Rosa, Spello

List of gardens discussed and described in:
Edith Wharton: Italian Villas and their Gardens


Villa Albani
Villa Aldobrandini
Villa Belcaro
Villa Bombicci
Villa Borghese
Villa Cafaggiulo
Villa Cagnola
Villa Cambiaso (Paradiso)
Villa Canipi
Villa Capponi at Arcetri
Villa Capra
Villa Caprarola
Villa Careggi
Villa Carlotta
Villa Castel Pulci
Villa Celimontana
Villa Cetinale
Villa Chigi
Villa Cicogna
Villa Conti
Villa Corsini
Villa Crivelli
Villa Cuzzano
Villa Danti
Villa Doria in Genoa
Villa Durazzo-Grapollo
Villa d’Este at Cernobbio
Villa d’Este at Tivoli
Villa Falconieri
Villa Fonte all’ Erta
Villa Gamberaia
Villa Giacomelli
Villa Giustiniani
Villa Imperiali at San Fruttuoso
Isola Bella
Villa Lancellotti
Villa Lante
Villa Lappeggi
Villa Lomellini
Villa Ludovisi
Villa Madama
Villa Malcontenta
Villa Medici
Villa Mondragone
Villa Muti
Villa Negroni
Villa Palazzina, La,
Villa Pallavicini at Pegli
Villa Pallavicini alle Peschiere
Villa Palmieri
Villa Pamphily
Villa di Papa Giulio
Villa Paradisino
Villa Petraia
Villa Pia
Villa Pisani
Villa Pliniana
Villa Poggio a Caiano
Villa Pogglo Imperiale
Villa Pratolino
Villa Sacchetti
Villa Scassi
Villa Torlonia
Villa Valmarana
Villa Val San Zibio
Villa Vicobello
Villa Visconti di Saliceto


Edith Wharton's Italian Gardens
Vivian Russell 

Wharton Italian gardens

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Edith Wharton published her first book on Italian garden architecture, "Italian Villas and Their Gardens", in 1904. She was a lifelong Italophile as well as a lifelong gardener. Nineteen of the gardens Wharton and her illustrator Maxfield Parrish brought to public attention are virtually unchanged by the passage of the single century since her descriptions were written. Russell has recaptured both the essence of the gardens themselves and Wharton's experience of them in a series of excellent photographs and historical summaries of each garden.


Garden Lover's Guide to Italy
Penelope Hobhouse



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Your webmaster owns and, believe it or not, has actually read all the books listed in the bibliography (top left). Of the in-print guides to the gardens of Italy, this book by Penelope Hobhouse is the guide book I recommend most highly. Concise, with beautiful illustrations and useful information about all the gardens that matter.


Italian Gardens: From Petrarch to Russell Page
Helena Attlee



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Illustrated with contemporary paintings, drawings and prints as well as photographs of the gardens as they are today. Attlee, an expert in the field, starts with Petrarch who was still looking to mediaeval chronicles for advice on how and when to plant, and goes on through the Renaissance and to modern design.

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