This is the first in a four-volume collection of writings of one of the 20th century's greatest landscape architects. This volume includes "Soundings", an introductory personal tour, plus two early works on European gardens: "An Italian Study" (Jellicoe's own reappraisal of his seminal "Italian Gardens of the Renaissance", published 1925) and "Baroque Gardens of Austria" (published 1932). "Soundings" is a self-appraisal of seven decades of practice as a landscape architect and is intended to convey to the reader the same feelings towards the subconscious in creative design that Jellicoe himself has experienced. In the literature on landscape architecture, "Italian Gardens of the Renaissance" has been one of the pivotal works. To the original photographs and drawings first published in 1925, Jellicoe has added a completely new text. "An Italian Study" is his own evocation and ressessment of that generative trip taken almost 70 years ago. Sir Geoffrey sets out to describe the study and the various phases of its making, ranging from the choice of subject to drawing as an interpretation of history.
The third in this volume is "Baroque Gardens of Austria", which makes a return to print as part of the "Collected Writings". Each work in the volume is illustrated with the original photographs and drawings (to scale). The book is aimed at architects, landscape architects, garden planners and should be a useful reference work in libraries.
