The Garden History Society

Reading Zen in the Rocks: The Japanese Dry Landscape Garden by François Berthier; Graham
Parkes
Review by: Jill Raggett
Garden History, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Winter, 2000), pp. 293-294
Published by: The Garden History Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1587286 .
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 REVIEWS 293
I750, by which stage the nomenclaturewas soon to independencein Amsterdamby teachingpainting.In
becomeoutdatedas a resultof the introductionof the 1699she went on a two-yearexcursionto Surinamin
binomialsystem,leavingthe remaindercopiesunsold. SouthAmericawherethe insectfaunawas recorded.
The Gardenat Eichstdtt:The Book of Plantsby This led to the publication of Metamorphosis
Baselius Besler, edited by Petra Lamers-Schiilze, InsectorumSurinamensium:Ofte Veranderingder
republishesthe plates from the first edition, adding SurinaamscheInsecten (Amsterdam,I795), which
well-writtenintroductoryessayson the historyof the greatlyimpressedcontemporaryscholars.
making of the garden and the production of the Her New Book of Flowerswas reissuedseveral
publication and its various editions. The coloured times duringher lifetimeand was republishedin the
plates based on 367 copperplateengravingsfollow, twentiethcentury.While facsimilesare availablein
depictingmore than IIoo plants. Modern scientific Germaneditions,the presentone has been produced
plant names are inserteddiscretelyat the bottom of for the Englishmarketwith an authoritativeEpilogue
the pages.The plateswereorganizedaccordingto the explainingthe backgroundand context. It still pro-
seasons in which the plants flower. The book does vides the Foreword and Table of Content of the
not, however, include the contemporaryLatin text originaledition,whicharehelpfulto seriousresearch-
for each plant, which was last republishedin a I964 ers. The book has been attractivelyproduced and
reprintof the 1750 edition. The book also does not printedon beautifulpaper.
includea comprehensivebotanicaldiscussionof the While beautifullyproduced,each of these three
plates, and for this readerswill have to returnto the volumes also provides a valuable source of early
reprinteditedby GerardG. Aymonin(Munich,1987). gardenplants. To dedicatedgardenhistoriansthey
The present publication,however, summarizesthe provideessentialreferenceworksrecordingthe avail-
findingsin a separatesection following the plates, able range of gardenplant taxa, and the plates are
which also contains further short essays on the thus an essential aid in maintaininghistoric plant
contextof the book andthe gardentoday.The garden collections.
has recentlybeen replantedwith the plants included JANWOUDSTRA Departmentof Landscape,
in the book. It is not, however,a reconstructionof the Universityof Sheffield,WesternBank,
historic garden, which was impossibledue to later Sheffieldsio TN, UK
alterationsfor defencepurposesandbecauseof a lack
of documentation.
The book has been exquisitelyproducedbut at FrancoisBerthierand GrahamParkes,ReadingZen
an enormousformat,makingit unsuitableas a guide in the Rocks: The Japanese Dry Landscape
but useful as a start for serious study. However, Garden (Chicago and London: University of
becauseof its lush production,it can also double up ChicagoPress,zooo), I66 pp., illus.in black-and-
as a coffee table book and would make a good, if white, ?I4.oo (hbk), ISBN -zz6-04411-4.
heavy,gift. And all thatfor a bargainprice. This small book is composedof two essays, three if
Maria Sibylla Merian'sNew Book of Flowers one includesthe translator'sexceptionallylong Pre-
(Nuremburg,I680) was not producedfor scientific face based on the theme of the Japanesekaresansui
reasonsbut ratheras the firstpatternbook, providing(dry landscapegarden).The first essay by FranSois
models 'to copy and paint as to sew in the women's Berthier,a Professorof JapaneseArt and History at
room and for the use andpleasureof all expertloversthe Institut National des Langues et Civilisations
of art'.As a resultof its purposeas an exercisebook,
Orientalesin Paris,describesthe origin of this form
plantsarenot only illustratedas singlespecimens,butof garden as influencedby the garden tradition of
also are producedin well-arrangedcompositionsof China, and the meeting with Zen philosophy in
form and colour. The engravingsare remarkablefor Japan.GrahamParkes,Professorof Philosophyat the
their botanicalaccuracy,lifelike colouringand aes- Universityof Hawaii,andtranslatorof the firstessay,
thetic beauty.Unlike illustrationsin the more tradi-
continuesby providinga muchbroaderapproachin
tional florilegia,they often providesome relationship
his philosophicalessay, which makes up the latter
of the plantswith theirsurroundings,and frequently half of the book. Parkesconsidersthe appreciationof
includeinsects. The engravingswere initiallyissued rock by humanityillustratedby authorsand philo-
in three separate books with twelve plates each sophers as diverse as William Shakespeare,Johann
between 1675 and I679. They were first published Wolfgangvon GoetheandFriedrichNietzsche.
together in i680. Simultaneously, Merian was ReadingZen in the Rocksis a ratherfrustrating
workingon a book on caterpillars,publishedin 1679, read, but within it lie some nuggets of interesting
that establishedherreputationin this field. informationand 'food for thought'that help to build
Maria Sibylla was the daughterthe Matthaus a fuller picture of this particular expression of
Merian the elder from Frankfurt am Main, an artist Japanesegardens.Berthieroffersan interestinginsight
known for his city panoramaswho had died in I650, into the evolutionof the statusof the gardenlabourers
after which she was broughtup by her mother and who initially built the gardens and became the
stepfather,JacobMarrel,a minorpainter.Her milieu designersof gardens. He also provides a detailed
led her to becomea painterherself,and to marrying account of the history of the karesansuigarden at
one. Laterseparatedfrom her husband,she brought Ryoanji,althoughat timesthe text is a little difficult
up her two daughtersherself while establishingher to follow due to a ratherdisjointedstyle anda lack of

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 294 GARDEN HISTORY
references. One is led to believe that cherry trees were
once a major attraction at Ryoanji, but was this
within the karesansui garden or in the wider temple
grounds? Without a reference for this valuable piece
of information it is difficult to clarify the issue.
A major issue not tackled, and which is missing
from many other books, is how the karesansui garden
actually fitted into the daily practice of Zen Buddhist
monks. How were and how are these karesansui
gardens used in monastic life? Are they a regular part
of the meditation practice, both seated and working?
Nowhere in the text is the reader informed that the
gardens were frequently designed to be viewed from a
seated position, often with the best-composed view to
be seen from a particular position within the building.
It would have been extremely useful, especially
for those unfamiliar with the setting of the dry
landscape garden within Ryoanji temple complex, to
have Parkes's excellent description of a visit placed
much earlier in the publication. A useful chronology
is provided for the development of the karesansui
garden, though for some reason it appears in the
middle of the work. A glossary of terms would also
have been useful, but it is absent, and more import-
antly an index is not provided, which is a great shame.
JILL RAGGETT Faculty of Horticulture,
Writtle College, Writtle, Essex CMI 3RR, UK
Jacques Boyceau, Traite du Jardinage [I638], with a
Preface by Iris Lauterbach. Architectura Recre-
ationis Series, no. 3 (Nordlingen: Dr Alfons Uhl,
1997), i68 pp, illus., 59 pls, DM98.00 (hbk), ISBN
3-92I503-96-5.
This well-produced reprint of an important and
influential seventeenth-century French gardening
book has been printed in the original format on
beautiful paper. Its fifty-nine plates illustrate different
designs of parterres de broderie, which form an
essential element in the history of the French formal
garden.
The publication is the third volume of the
'Architectura Recreationis' Series edited by Iris Laut-
erbach, who also wrote a Preface in both French and
German. It puts Jacques Boyceau's book into context
and provides a good summary of the different French
gardening treatises published in the seventeenth cen-
tury. Lauterbach describes the different roles played
by the various authors in the introduction of the new
French garden style. Boyceau's book was published
after his death in 1638 and succeeded the publication
of Jean Liebault's updated version of Charles Esti-
enne's Maison Rustique (Paris, 1564) and Olivier de
Serres's Le theatre d'agriculture et mesnage des
champs (Paris, 600o). The latter contained illustra-
tions of parterres drawn and executed in the royal
gardens by Claude I Mollet, who himself had written
Theatre des plans et jardinages (Paris, I6ios), which
was only published in I65z by his son Andre, author
of Le Jardin de Plaisir (Stockholm, I65I). These are
the most influential texts illustrating the evolution
and the establishment of the French formal garden
This content downloaded from 160.94.45.157 on Thu, 1 Aug 2013 09:41:31 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
28:2
style and one of its most important features the
parterre de broderie.
The illustrations of these different treatises are
essential in the understanding of the development of
parterre design in the pre-Le N6tre era; from the
parterre de compartiment, consisting of small squares
with different geometrical patterns, to the large,
unified areas with scroll forms characterizing the
parterre de broderie. Members of the Mollet family
were key figures who executed parterres for royal
gardens and were the authors of all the illustrations
in the various treatises mentioned above. In Boyceau's
book, there is no firm evidence linking the drawings
to the Mollets, but in the past, by stylistic comparison,
they were attributed to Claude II Mollet, Andre's
brother.
Boyceau's Traite du Jardinage was the first
published gardening treatise not centred on utilitarian
gardens. Liebault's and de Serres's publications dealt
more generally with the upkeep of the country estate
and they dedicated a large section of the content to
agricultural matters, but Boyceau's work- entitled
Traite du jardinage selon les raisons de la nature et de
l'art - is explicitly dedicated to gardening, which he
associated with art. The innovation of his approach
is mainly revealed in his third book, entirely devoted
to pleasure gardens in a section entitled 'Du jardin de
plaisir' (III, 82). This was probably the inspiration for
the title of Andre Mollet's book, which was published
nearly twenty years later.
Boyceau's chapter on parterres is short and
leaves much to be desired in comparison with the
detailed drawings included in the publication. His
advice remains at the level of aesthetic considerations,
general effects and organizations. Unlike the members
of the Mollet family, Boyceau was not a gardener and
did not seem to have the technical knowledge and
savoir-faire. As the Intendant of the Royal Gardens,
he was an aristocrat writing for his peers. He clearly
stipulated that pleasure gardens were not for the
lower classes, but for the princes and rich gentlemen.
His contribution is the fact that he shared his
experience and provided a general list of desirable
features to be included in the garden of pleasure. His
publication is certainly not a manual like Mollet's Le
Jardin de Plaisir, but he was the first to publish design
principles for formal gardens and illustrations of
parterres de broderies. For these reasons, Traite du
Jardinage was a milestone in the establishment of the
classic French garden and is a worthy acquisition for
all garden historians interested in this period.
LAURENCEPATTACINISchool of Environment,
Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher
Education, Cheltenham GL5o 4AZ, UK.
Mavis Batey, Alexander Pope: The Poet and the
Landscape (London: Barn Elms, I999), 135 pp.,
illus. in colour and black-and-white, ?25.00
(hbk), ISBNI-89953I-o5-x.
One of the biggest challenges to a historian of gardens,
or of anything else, is to elucidate the lost meanings