page_title: Giardino all'italiana
section_title: Roman influence
hierarchical_section_title: Giardino all'italiana / History and influence / Roman influence
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Ricostruzione del giardino della Casa dei Vettii a Pompei (mostra al giardino di Boboli, 2007).
context_page_description: The giardino all'italiana or Italian garden is stylistically based on symmetry, axial geometry and on the principle of imposing order over nature. It influenced the history of gardening, especially French gardens and English gardens.
context_section_description: Roman gardens (Latin: horti) were greatly inspired by Greek gardens and were usually in the peristyles. Roman Gardens were indoor. Ornamental horticulture became highly developed during the development of Roman civilisation. The administrators of the Roman Empire (c.100 BC – AD 500) actively exchanged information on agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, hydraulics, and botany. Seeds and plants were widely shared. The Gardens of Lucullus (Horti Lucullani) on the Pincian Hill at the edge of Rome introduced the Persian garden to Europe, around 60 BC. The garden was a place of peace and tranquillity, a refuge from urban life, and a place filled with religious and symbolic meanings. As Roman culture developed and became increasingly influenced by foreign civilizations through trade, the use of gardens expanded and gardens ultimately thrived in Ancient Rome.
  The principle styles of the giardino all'italiana emerged from the rediscovery by Renaissance scholars of Roman models.  They were inspired by the descriptions of Roman gardens given by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, in the letters of Pliny the Younger, in Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia, and in Rerum Rusticanum by Varro, all of which gave detailed and lyrical description of the gardens of Roman villas.  
  Pliny the Younger described his life at his villa at Laurentum:  " ...a good life and a genuine one, which is happy and honourable, more rewarding than any "business" can be.  You should take the first opportunity to leave the din, the futile bustle and useless occupations of the city and devote yourself to literature or to leisure".   The purpose of a garden, according to Pliny, was otium,  which could be translated as seclusion, serenity, or relaxation.  A garden was a place to think, read, write and relax.
  Pliny  described shaded paths bordered with hedges, ornamental parterres, fountains, and trees and bushes trimmed to geometric or fantastic shapes;  all features which would become part of the future Renaissance garden.
caption: Reconstruction of the garden of the House of the Vettii in Pompeii
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