Paris: Chez Pissot, 1776. First edition of the most substantial and popular original French work to advocate the natural landscape style of gardening in France. Morel never visited England, thus his ideas followed more directly from French examples (including his own gardens); nevertheless, he also drew inspiration from the published theories of Whately and Watelet and from the influence of his close association with Girardin at Ermenonville. Morel trained as an architect and geographical engineer, but his long career was focused almost entirely on garden design. He worked on at least 50 parks and gardens, including: Guiscard, Ermenonville, Casson, Launay, and La Malmaison. Extensive descriptions of Guiscard and Ermenonville are used here as examples to illustrate his ideas, although his account of Ermenonville claims more personal credit for its design than is appropriately due. But however significant Morel's activities as a creator of gardens may have been, it was as the pre-eminent theorist of natural garden design that he had the greatest impact. Of all French gardeners of the picturesque school, he stood furthest from the fashionable and decorative anglo-chinois aspects of garden design and advocated a style more purely imitative of nature. As such, his ideas were far more influential on the later "style paysagiste" than those of his contemporaries, and in many respects formed the (often unacknowledged) theoretical foundation for much of French garden design throughout the 19th century. The pre-eminent French theorist of natural garden design of his time. Ganay 98; Berlin Cat. 3469; Musset-Pathay 1822. 8vo (18 x 12cm); (viii) + 397 + (3) pp.; page 140 misnumbered p. 148.