Dell'arte dei giardini inglesi

4to (252 x 200 mm). [8], 373, [3: errata] pp. and [6] folding plates. Contemporary leather-backed marbled boards, gilt title and ornaments on spine, sprinkled edges (worn and rubbed). The book is illustrated with overall XXXVI numbered engravings (including the one on the title page and the six folding plates) by Gaetano Riboldi after Giuseppe Levati. Some occasional light browning , but overall a very good, genuine copy. 

This is the first edition of a fundamental work on the creation and diffusion of the English garden in nineteenth-century Italy. It has been described as "the most important Italian work on the subject" (Schlosser Magnino, p. 684) and "the best work of this kind in Italy" (Cicognara, 960). The thirty illustrations in the text depict English garden landscapes, while the six folding plates show Villa Silva in Cinisello, Villa Cusani in Desio, the lake at Villa Reale in Monza, the gardens at the Castle of Belgioioso and other Milanese gardens. This work also provides a comprehensive catalogue of plants (including herbs, shrubs and trees) that are suitable for English gardens. It played a significant role in popularising the art of 'landscape gardening' and English gardens in Italy. English gardens were a specific type of landscaping that incorporated various architectural features, such as small temples, turrets, false ruins and coffee houses.

At the end of the eighteenth century, the Grand Tour was a popular cultural and educational journey in search of vestiges of classical antiquity and masterpieces of Renaissance art. Italians made fewer trips across the Alps, but these often presented valuable opportunities to learn about and bring back to Italy the major artistic and technical innovations flourishing in the north. Curiosity drove the twenty-seven-year-old Ercole Silva, Count of Biandrate, to embark on a journey in 1783 that would keep him away from his Milanese home for approximately three years. He visited Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, England and France. These were fervent years of encounters and discoveries, which he recorded diligently in notes that unfortunately were lost. According to his biographer, Cesare Rovida, these notes would have aroused amazement and success had they been published, since there were few learned Italian travellers at the time. From 1785 onwards, Ercole travelled with Ferdinand of Habsburg and Beatrice d'Este. With the royal couple, he visited numerous residences in England (Stowe, Kew, Richmond and Blenheim) and France (Ermenonville). He subsequently transformed the garden of his villa in Cinisello in the English Baroque style.

The work was extremely successful, to the point that Ugo Foscolo mentioned it in his poem Sepolcri (vv. 130-132: "gardens / of the suburban tombs of the British / virgins"). Furthermore, the renowned patry chef Marie-Antoine Carême drew inspiration from the architectural models in this text for his elaborate culinary creations.

Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\PAVE\003503; L.S. Pelissetti, Il ruolo di Ercole Silva nella diffusione del giardino “all'inglese” tra XVIII e XIX secolo, in: Fabio Finotti, ed., "Melchiorre Cesarotti e le trasformazioni del paesaggio europeo", Trieste, 2010, pp. 145-164; ll Gran Teatro delle Fabbriche, Milan, 2000; Melzi, I, 90 ("Ercole Silva, a Milanese patrician, who revived the taste for the improperly called English Gardens").

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