A short illustrated book on the design of the pleasure garden by a royal gardener of the second generation of the Mollet family, setting out the order of a great garden from the avenue to the perspective painted at the end of the walks.
André Mollet (c. 1600–1665) was the son of Claude Mollet, head gardener to Henri IV and Louis XIII, who had laid out some of the first embroidered parterres, at Anet in the 1580s, and whose own Théâtre des plans et jardinages was printed in 1652. André carried the French manner abroad: he worked for Charles I in England, for the Prince of Orange in the Netherlands, and for Queen Christina in Sweden, where Le Jardin de plaisir was published in 1651, and he returned to England after 1660 to lay out St James’s Park, with its long canal, for Charles II.
His book gives the parts of a royal garden in order. A wide avenue of double or quadruple rows of trees leads to the house; behind the house come the parterres of embroidery, then parterres of grass compartments, then the groves (bosquets) with their walks, fountains and statues, and at the ends of the walks perspective paintings on canvas or board to deceive the eye into seeing further. The plates are designs for embroidered parterres and whole gardens.
The book, part by part
I The design of a royal garden
The avenue, the house, the parterres of embroidery and of grass, the bosquets, walks, fountains and perspectives, in that order from the house outward.
Rules: The order of a royal garden
II Plates
Designs for parterres de broderie and compartments, and plans of whole gardens.