326 - HIRSCHFELD, Ch. Cay Lorenz.

HIRSCHFELD, Ch. Cay Lorenz. Theory of Garden Art. Leipzig: Published by the heirs of Weidmann and Reich, 1779–1785. 4 volumes in-4 out of 5 (volume 2 missing). Contemporary speckled fawn half-basane with period corners, smooth decorated spine, gilt title, fawn paper title label and volume number, gilt fillets, speckled covers and edges (binding worn and rubbed with a few losses, but interior remains fresh). Description: A very rare original French edition of this treatise on garden aesthetics. Christian Hirschfeld (1742–1792), a rationalist scholar of the Enlightenment and professor at the University of Kiel, is best known for this major reference work on 18th-century gardens. Published in German under the title *Theorie der Gartenkunst*, simultaneously with this French edition translated by Francesco da Castiglione (1708–1791), known as Frédéric de Castillon, his book sought to analyze the garden with scientific rigor and erudition, coupled with a natural, thoroughly Rousseauist sensibility, asserting “that it was futile to conceive of a garden without taking into account its function or its location.” Celebrated for introducing the so-called “English-style” landscape garden to northern Europe, the work notably provides a description of the most beautiful gardens of the era. The illustrations are architectural in nature or depict bridges and grottoes... Each volume features a title page adorned with an engraved vignette and numerous black-and-white copperplate engravings based on drawings by Johann Heinrich Brandt. Some are signed with a dotted line [Schuricht] and Geyser in Volume 4. In the later volumes, several illustrations are full-page insert plates. Ganay, 105. Also included: -LA BRETONNERIE, M.-J., by. Ecole du jardin fruitier. Paris, Chez Eugène Onfroy, 1784. 2 volumes, small 12mo. Contemporary fawn-colored speckled sheepskin, decorated ribbed spine (binding rubbed with small losses, but interior remains fresh). First edition. Horticulture. -LIGER, Louis. *The Gardener, Florist, and Historiographer, or The Universal Cultivation of Flowers, Trees, Shrubs, and Bushes Used to Beautify Gardens*… Volume 2 only. Paris, published by Paulus-Dusmenil, 1748. In-16. Contemporary mottled fawn sheepskin, decorated ribbed spine (binding rubbed). With fold-out woodcuts and in-text illustrations, in black. The French agronomist Louis Liger (1658–1717), a native of Auxerre, was a highly successful author in his field.