Thierry Mariage is Architect for National and Historical Monuments, in charge of Versailles Museum, Park, and Gardens. Graham Larkin is Curator of European and American Art at the National Gallery of Canada.

• List of IllustrationsForewordIntroduction1. Establishment of the Classic Landscape-Mutations of the Seigneurial Residence-Protectionist Policies and Economic Planning-The Rehabilitation of the French Nobility2. The Generation of Planners-The Milieu and Corporation of Gardeners-Practical Geometry and Measuring Instruments-Conceptions of Landscape3. Theory and Forms of the French Garden-From Agronomy to Aesthetics-The Precepts of Boyceau de la Baraudiere-Symbolism of the Classic Garden and Origins of the Constitutive Parts-Some Gardens from the First Half of the Seventeenth Century-Critical Analysis of Courances-The Originality of Vaux-Fragments of Le Notre's Theory and Typical Features of His Style4. Parks, Forests, and Planning-The Surintendance des Batiments du Roi-Regional-Scale Planning at Versailles-Regulation of SpaceConclusionNotesGlossaryBibliographyIndexTranslator's Acknowledgments

"A stimulating effort to contextualize Le NÔtre's career and to relate the 'French formal garden' to the cultural and political environment of Louis XIV's reign."-French History"This ambitious book is intellectually significant, well researched, and cogently presented. . . . Excellent."-Geographical Reviews"A substantial contribution to the study of seventeenth-century French garden practice."-Landscape Architecture