Zahrady Rudolfa II

"The art lover Emperor Rudolf II also devoted considerable attention to his gardens, most of which had been laid out by his predecessors; so far, however, little has been known about them. The history of the gardens of Prague Castle (with the Royal Garden in pride of place), the Hvezda Game Preserve, the Imperial Mill, and the gardens of the castle in Brandys nad Labem, is presented in the book in such a way as to provide the most concrete impression of what they originally looked like. The story of how their various buildings and features came into being - such as orangeries, ball game halls, menageries, secret passages, geometrical flower-beds and fountains - reveals a great deal about how people viewed gardens and life in them at that time, but also includes the everyday problems of the court architects and gardeners. Help in presenting a graphic overview of 16th-century horticulture is provided by many references to gardens elsewhere in Europe, especially in Italy, the extensive illustrations for the book, and also a summary of Renaissance theoretical views, which differed considerably from those of the Baroque."--Publisher description.