A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Watering the Renaissance Garden: Horticultural Theory and Irrigation Practice in Sixteenth-Century Tuscany
Abstract Although essential for the life of plants, garden irrigation remains a little known aspect of Italian Renaissance horticulture. By drawing mainly on sixteenth-century Tuscan sources, this chapter attempts to reconstruct both the methods and theoretical underpinnings of this practice. It examines the modes of bringing water into Italian gardens; the specific uses of watering—for example, for fertilizing soil or medicating plants; the tools and techniques of garden irrigation; and various other factors, such as the origin and temperature of water, that were considered relevant by Renaissance garden theorists and practitioners. Special attention is paid to the methods of utilizing running water in the horticultural context. This chapter argues that the conservative nature of garden irrigation in the Renaissance, which in great measure continued the ancient tradition of plant cultivation, was primarily a response to the multiplicity of objectives that watering had to meet. It therefore reflected the time-honoured approach to the stewardship of land and its resources, in which manual work and diligent attention to the individual needs of plants could not easily be replaced by technological innovations. In conclusion, this chapter explains how the principles of garden irrigation influenced the design and appearance of sixteenth-century Italian gardens.
Watering the Renaissance Garden: Horticultural Theory and Irrigation Practice in Sixteenth-Century Tuscany
Abstract Although essential for the life of plants, garden irrigation remains a little known aspect of Italian Renaissance horticulture. By drawing mainly on sixteenth-century Tuscan sources, this chapter attempts to reconstruct both the methods and theoretical underpinnings of this practice. It examines the modes of bringing water into Italian gardens; the specific uses of watering—for example, for fertilizing soil or medicating plants; the tools and techniques of garden irrigation; and various other factors, such as the origin and temperature of water, that were considered relevant by Renaissance garden theorists and practitioners. Special attention is paid to the methods of utilizing running water in the horticultural context. This chapter argues that the conservative nature of garden irrigation in the Renaissance, which in great measure continued the ancient tradition of plant cultivation, was primarily a response to the multiplicity of objectives that watering had to meet. It therefore reflected the time-honoured approach to the stewardship of land and its resources, in which manual work and diligent attention to the individual needs of plants could not easily be replaced by technological innovations. In conclusion, this chapter explains how the principles of garden irrigation influenced the design and appearance of sixteenth-century Italian gardens.
Watering the Renaissance Garden: Horticultural Theory and Irrigation Practice in Sixteenth-Century Tuscany
Tchikine, Anatole (author)
2016-01-01
20 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
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