Comments on: Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and renaissance garden design history

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 14:58:03 +0000

I agree – and I rather think Godwin would too. Paganism and related ideas were a broad and significant influence on art in general and and gardens in particular. So the Hyperotomachia becomes more a symptom than a cause, but it is also a convenient point of reference for the ideas.

By: Kat

Kat — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 09:02:35 +0000

I have read Godwin’s book, will check out the other one, thanks (although my reading in French is a bit slow). I guess it isn’t that I don’t think it had an impact it is more that I so often see it invoked as a key source and I’m not so sure it was that central. It is hard to know exactly how widely read it was. Also in my study of the period there are other sources that discuss/show similar types of garden designs and similar concepts that I feel often get overlooked in favour of the Hypnerotomachia.

By: Tom Turner

Tom Turner — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 06:19:24 +0000

Thank you for the reference. I shared your scepticism until I read Joscelyn Godwin's Pagan Dream of the Renaissance (2005) and Emanuela Kretzulesco-Quaranta's Les jardin du songe: Poliphile et la mystique de la renaissance (1986) - I think these may be the studies you are looking for. There is also a good short section in Godwin's The real rule of four (2004) pp 136ff.

By: Kat

Kat — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 06:02:32 +0000

I have to admit that while the Hyperotomachia is fantastic I am still sceptical as to exactly how much it directly had an impact on garden design. I do know a lot of garden designers/architects owned copies though, but still I would love to see some more thorough study of it in relation to garden design over the centuries.
One good read on it that you might have seen but in case you haven’t is an issue of ‘Word and Image’ dedicated to the Hypnerotomachia, vol 14 issues 1&2, 1998.