ORTO DE' PITTI. THE ARCHITECTS, GARDENERS AND BOTANICAL DESIGN OF THE BOBOLI GARDENS

The book features the Boboli Garden, or "Orto de' Pitti" as it was known in the earlier times, focusing in particular on the Botanical Garden, one of the lesser known and more fascinating parts of Palazzo Pitti's magnificent "Royal Park"and one that the author approaches by different and original points of view: historical, botanical, architectural. Boboli's Botanical Garden, which is currently closed to the public, held an impressive quantity of rare plants most of which have now disappeared; these attracted a variety of people ranging from botanists to pharmacists to natural historians and painters who produced a fascinating amount of texts, plants, paintings, prints and studies. Thanks to Domenico Filardi's thorough research, and to the large amount of previously unpublished archival material which the author has dug up, we can now have a greater insight in the secrets of this garden and discover facts, aspects and stories of different kinds, some of which are here approached for the first time, making this publication an essential chapter in the garden history of Italy. Lavishly illustrated with images ranging from ancient prints to paintings to modern photographs, the book fills a gap in the notwithstanding large bibliography devoted to Florence and its treasures.