Über den Autor / die Autorin:
Bianca Maria Rinaldi, architect and landscape architect, is Assistant Professor at the Institut of Landscape Architecture, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, in Vienna.
Rezension/en:
"There are some fascinating insights into how the Jesuits' use of botanical knowledge was seen as a means to gain access to those with power and influence, including the Emperors' court. [...] The author, from her extensive studies of contemporary accounts, is able to highlight how the Jesuits' assessments of gardens changed over time as their appreciation and understanding evolved. [...] This is a book for the academic or those with a deep enthusiasm and interest in Chinese flora and gardens. [...] There are balanced and useful explanations, and the quality and depth of research is the great strength of this book. Sources of the wide-ranging primary data are carefully referenced allowing the dedicated scholar to find the originals." (Garden History, Journal of the Garden History Society)
About this book:
During the eighteenth century, Europe saw a radical change in taste in the
art of the garden, which led to the development and spread throughout the
continent of gardens inspired by an artistic naturalness. A contribution
to this process came from the Society of Jesus, whose members were the
first to inform Europeans of the natural forms of the gardens of China.
The book illustrates the Jesuits' visits to the main imperial gardens, and
documents the many reports about Chinese flora and garden art they
compiled and sent during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Evaluating the ways in which the gradual deepening of the Jesuits'
investigation reflected the changes in botanical studies and in gardening
taste in European culture of the period, the book focuses on European
intellectual and social history of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, as well as on the story of cultural relations between Europe
and China in terms of flora and the art of the garden.