The Garden of Eden: The Botanic Garden and the Recreation of Paradise (Yale University Press)

Published by Yale University Press, 1988, hardcover, illustrated, 122 pages, condition: as new.

 This book, written by an Oxford scholar, looks at the Botanic gardens developed in Oxford, Leiden and Padua amongst others, and their symbolic power in the early period as recreations of the lost Garden of Eden. The illustrations are fascinating, but even better is the opportunity to have them interpreted in the light of beliefs of the time. An analysis of the development of the botanical garden in Europe as an attempt to recreate the Garden of Eden includes discussions of the history of the famous gardens in Paris, Oxford, and Uppsala.