Italian Villas and Their Gardens (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. Renaissance and Baroque Garden Design, Architecture, Fountains, and Landscape Traditions in ItalyBy Edith Wharton
Length5h 54m
About this audiobook
In Italian Villas and Their Gardens, Edith Wharton offers a cultivated study of the Italian villa as an art form in which architecture, landscape, history, and social ritual are inseparably joined. Moving from Renaissance and Baroque estates to lesser-known regional examples, she analyzes terraces, waterworks, avenues, statuary, and planting schemes with a novelist's eye for atmosphere and a critic's concern for proportion. The prose is lucid, elegant, and exacting, situated within early twentieth-century aesthetic discourse and the Anglo-American rediscovery of European design traditions. Wharton's authority derives not only from research but from lived intimacy with houses, gardens, and cultivated interiors. Born into New York society and deeply conversant with European culture, she brought to design the same disciplined intelligence that shaped her fiction. Her interest in domestic space, taste, inheritance, and social form made the Italian villa a natural subject: it embodied, for her, civilization expressed through arrangement. This book is warmly recommended to readers interested in garden history, architectural criticism, Italian culture, and Wharton's broader artistic imagination. It rewards both the scholar and the traveler, teaching the eye to see villas not as picturesque relics but as deliberate compositions of order, beauty, and human aspiration.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes.
- The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists.
- A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing.
- An Author Biography reveals milestones in the author's life, illuminating the personal insights behind the text.
- A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings.
- Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life.
- Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance.
- Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
Audiobook details
GenreScience and Nature
Length5 hrs 54 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateNov 24, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Italian Villas and Their Gardens (Annotated)
2Introduction
3Synopsis
4Historical Context
5Author Biography
Show all chaptersShow less
6INTRODUCTION ITALIAN GARDEN-MAGIC
7I FLORENTINE VILLAS
8II SIENESE VILLAS
9III ROMAN VILLAS
10IV VILLAS NEAR ROME
11I CAPRAROLA AND LANTE
12II VILLA D’ESTE
13III FRASCATI
14V GENOESE VILLAS
15VI LOMBARD VILLAS
16VII VILLAS OF VENETIA
17LIST OF BOOKS MENTIONED
18ARCHITECTS AND LANDSCAPE-GARDENERS MENTIONED
19ALESSI (GALEAZZO) 1512-1572
20ALGARDI (ALESSANDRO) 1602-1654
21AMMANATI (BARTOLOMMEO) 1511-1592
22BERNINI (GIOVANNI LORENZO) 1598-1680
23BORROMINI (FRANCESCO) 1599-1667
24BRAMANTE (DONATO) 1444-1514
25BROWN (LANCELOT) 1715-1783
26BUONTALENTI (BERNARDO TIMANTE) 1536-1608
27CAMPORESI (PIETRO) B. ——, d. 1781
28CARLONE
29CASTELLI (CARLO) XVII Century
30CASTELLO (GIOVANNI BATTISTA) CALLED IL BERGAMASCO 1509-1579
31CRIVELLI XVII Century
32FERRI (ANTONIO) XVII Century
33FONTANA (CARLO) 1634-1714
34FONTANA (GIOVANNI) 1546-1614
35FRIGIMELICA (COUNT GIROLAMO) XVIII Century
36JUVARA (FILIPPO) 1685-1735
37LE NÔTRE (ANDRÉ) 1613-1700
38LIGORIO (PIRRO) 1493-1580
39LIPPI (ANNIBALE) B. ——, d. 1581
40LONGHENA (BALDASSARE) 1604-1682
41LUNGHI OR LONGHI (MARTINO) THE ELDER XVI Century
42MARCHIONNE (CARLO) 1704-1780
43MICHELANGELO (SIMONE BUONARROTI) 1475-1564
44MONTORSOLI (FRA GIOVANNI ANGELO) 1507-1563
45MOORE (JACOB) 1740-1793
46MORA XVII Century
47NOLLI (ANTONIO) XVIII Century
48NOLLI (PIETRO) XVIII Century
49OLIVIERI (ORAZIO) OF TIVOLI XVI Century
50PALLADIO (ANDREA) 1508-1580
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