From Timur To Tivoli: Reflections On IL Giardino All’Italiana

Abstract

At a symposium focusing on the gardens of the early modern Muslim empires, organized in 1994 at MIT by Attilio Petruciolli, several papers dealt with contemporary European gardens. Speaking about the Italian garden and cultural identity, the garden historian Claudia Lazzaro noted that a particular style of garden came to be designated as il giardino all?italiana , an expression first used in the eighteenth century to distinguish the English garden from the ?Italian formal, or in their terms, ?regular?? garden. This formal garden was one element within a larger scheme that could be transplanted anywhere for centuries to come. The authors own acquaintance with garden history began with studies on the gardens of the Timurids, who ruled in Central Asia and Iran from ca. 1370 to 1501. The gardens that best preserve the features are the Villa d?Este at Tivoli (1563) and the Villa Lante at Bagnaia (1568). Keywords: Attilio Petruciolli; Claudia Lazzaro; contemporary European gardens; early modern Muslim empires; il giardino all?italiana ; Italian garden; Timurids; Villa d?Este at Tivoli; Villa Lante at Bagnaia