THÉORIE DES JARDINS, Ou L'Art Des Jardins De La Nature.
Paris: Panckoucke, 1802. The enlarged and partially revised second edition, which includes significant material supplementing the original version of 1776. The newly added preface (128 pages) provides, among other things, an extended commentary on writings on garden design published since the first edition. There are also 75 pages of end notes and a new 100 page section on trees, consisting primarily of a "Tableau Dendrologique" listing the various features of over 1000 varieties of trees. Morel's THEORIE, following shorter works by Girardin and Watelet, presented the most thorough treatise on the new theories of natural garden design which dominated French taste at the end of the 18th century. It was also the first treatise on garden design in the natural style (French or English) to have been written by a professional rather than an amateur. Morel's practical experience is evident throughout, which may help account for the high esteem in which the book was held by French landscape gardeners far into the nineteenth century. Drawing heavily on Whately's OBSERVATIONS ON MODERN GARDENING, Morel rejected the formal symmetry of classical French gardens in favor of the picturesque and "natural" style associated with the English. He did not, however, actually visit England and its gardens until after the publication of the first edition, and the comments he added to this edition are the first to reflect first-hand experience of the places Whately had described. All these additions make this the generally preferred edition for purposes of study. The preferred edition for study. Ganay 98. Two volumes, 8vo (21 x 14 cm); (viii) + cxxviii + 234 + (1, errata), (iv) + 340 + (2, errata) pp. + engraved frontispiece.
Original blue paste paper wraps with printed spine labels; extremities rubbed; last three leaves of volume one stained; some margin soiling of the first two leaves of volume two; a wide-margined set with edges untrimmed.
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