Remembering the Middle Ages in Early Modern Italy
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Book Series
Art History (Outside a Series)
- Pages: approx. 120 p.
- Size:216 x 280 mm
- Illustrations:55 col., 2 maps b/w
- Language(s):English
- Publication Year:2026
- € 50,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-62088-6
- Hardback
- Forthcoming (Jan/26)
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This book puts forward new information sourced on the areas of gardens and horticulture, from hundreds of letters, reports and original processes archived around the theme of Les Enclos, the property Calouste Gulbenkian acquired in Normandy towards the end of his life.
BIO
Cristina Castel-Branco is a practising landscape architect and professor of landscape architecture at Lisbon University. As a Fulbright-ITT student, she received an MLA from the University of Massachusetts followed by her PhD focusing on garden history and supported by a Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship. Since 1990, she has run a prize-winning professional practice in Lisbon, the ACB studio. She has published widely on landscape architecture history, restoration, and ecological design. She served as president of the Board and is a founding member of the Historic Gardens Association and the Friends of the Botanical Garden of Ajuda, and is also a member of the UNESCO-ICOMOS Cultural Landscapes. She was awarded the honour of Officier des Arts et des Lettres in 2015 and the Japanese Government Praise of Merit in 2020.
Summary
The reality of Calouste Gulbenkian unfurls in two lives that influence 20th century history and with strong repercussions for Portugal. An oil engineer educated in London, a multi-millionaire, and considered the richest man in the world in his time. Gulbenkian turned his life into a rigorously planned success, becoming a collector of art and leaving behind the fabulous legacy for his Foundation to cherish and care for his art collection on exhibition in Lisbon.
Emerging from his sentence “There are two great objectives that I’ve never managed to attain in my life; becoming a scientist and having a garden in my own style where I might dream,” this new biography of Gulbenkian conveys his sensitivity towards nature and, correspondingly, gardens, which was his secret to a very successful relationship with life. In 1937, he purchased Les Enclos, an estate with 33 hectares in Normandy, with a view of the sea. In 1940: Interruption! German occupation! and on the promontory where he thought about building his home, the trees were felled, bunkers built alongside railway lines and all subsequently bombarded by the Allies.
As from 1942, in his refuge in Portugal, we encounter CG committed to rebuilding the Les Enclos garden from afar. The contrast with the Sintra Mountains is total. Here, he rents Vila Sassetti, a green paradise with its own view of the sea. Creating a garden is never a pursuit for one person and CG discovers Saint-John Perse, a friend and deeply learned in the art of gardens. Together, they dream Les Enclos. In Sintra, he is accompanied by his secretary who, since 1930, typed out the details of all his life, who secretly loved him, who served and defended him and was ever present through to his death. The handwriting of Mme. Theis is so peculiar that it betrays her, revealing a passion that would otherwise seem to be unfolding into two women...
TABLE OF CONTENTS
António Feijó – Preface
Chapter 1
Introduction – Just like spinning woollen yarn. One hand pulling the yarn forwards while the other pulls it backward
Chapter 2
The leather notebook. Romancing a garden ‘à ma façon’
Chapter 3
Les Enclos. A garden during the war. Nature comes back
Illustrations
Chapter 4
The never built garden. A garden dreamed of by Saint-John Perse (Douglas) and Calouste Gulbenkian (Douglas)
Chapter 5
The carbon paper … and the invisible Mme. Theis
Chapter 6
Madame Real. The Villa Sassetti garden in Sintra
Chapter 7
Every cloud has a silver lining. The Calouste Gulbenkian garden in Lisbon, 1969
Illustrations
Gulbenkian’s life chronology
Bibliography
Appendix 1 – List of catalogues of plants and garden materials belonging to C. Gulbenkian
Appendix 2 – List of garden books by C. Gulbenkian
Postface
