Théorie de l'Art des Jardins. Traduit de l'Allemand. Tome Premier - Tome Cinquieme avec la Table Générale des Matières.

Leipzig.: Chez les Heritiers de M. G. Weidmann et Reich., 1779 - 1785.. Contemporary calf-backed marbled boards, gilt tooling, decoration and title to spine. One leaf with discreet repair in vol. I and two leaves with tears and two leaves with bottom edge excised in vol. II.. 5 vols. in 2. 4to.. Each 'Tome' with engraved vignette title and numerous engraved illustrations as follows: 'Tome Premier' with forty-six illustrations; 'Tome Deuxième' with forty-nine illustrations; 'Tome Troisième' with fifty-seven illustrations; 'Tome Quatrième' with thirty-seven illustrations; 'Tome Cinquième' with forty-seven (ex. forty-eight) illustrations including one fold-out plate. In the later books several of the illustrations are full-page plates. Christian Hirschfeld (1742 - 1792), Enlightenment scholar and rationalist is perhaps best known for his five volume work on gardens. Published in German as the 'Theorie der Gartenkunst' at the same time as this French edition, Hirschfeld attempted to delineate the garden with the scientific powers of his scholarship while still allowing a natural and essential sentimentality to remain. Feted as the man who introduced the 'English' garden to Scandinavia, this Kiel University professor devoted an enormous quantity of time and effort to this, his magnum opus. The work treats all aspects of the garden and is noteworthy for its descriptions of many of the finest European gardens of the day. Hirschfeld's scholarship did not cease here, however, for his chief aim was to depict the garden in its entirety, thus many of the illustrations are architectural, or depict features such as bridges and grottos, for in his opinion, there was no point in attempting the design of a garden without taking into account its purpose and indeed its situation. As the author himself, so eloquently and modestly puts it in his own 'Préface':'Ce volume ne contient guere que les premiers principes généraux de l'art des jardins; principes qui demandoient un développement exact, quoiqu'on paroisse l'avoir cru peu nécessaire. Le plan de tout l'ouvrage s'exposera de lui-même dans la suite. Il faut cependant que je prévienne ici qu'on distinguer l'art des jardins du jardinage botanique, & economique, & que tout ce qu'on dit du premier dans cet ouvrage ne se rapporte qu'au beau & au bon goût. Ce qui regarde l'education & la culture des arbres & des plantes, a déjà été enseigné...Une Théorie parfaite de l'art des jardins n'est pas l'ouvrage d'un seul écrivain. Elle demande l'assistance des Princes & d'autres Grands pour parvenir au degré de perfection dont elle est susceptible.'