. Mazes and labyrinths; a general account of their history and developments. n long narrow beds twisted intovarious complicated figures seems to have become veryfashionable. Where maze patterns were introduced, a simple, uni-cursal form was sometimes followed, but in many in-stances very elaborate mazes were executed. In a few of our libraries are to be found copies of acurious book of garden designs by Jan Vredeman DeVries, entitled Hortorum Viridariorumque Formae,published at Antwerp in 158 3. In it are represented manyextraordinary and even fantastic plans for the lay-out ofgardens, includi
. Mazes and labyrinths; a general account of their history and developments. n long narrow beds twisted intovarious complicated figures seems to have become veryfashionable. Where maze patterns were introduced, a simple, uni-cursal form was sometimes followed, but in many in-stances very elaborate mazes were executed. In a few of our libraries are to be found copies of acurious book of garden designs by Jan Vredeman DeVries, entitled Hortorum Viridariorumque Formae,published at Antwerp in 158 3. In it are represented manyextraordinary and even fantastic plans for the lay-out ofgardens, including no less than nine in the form of laby-rinths. Some of the latter are designated by titles of adescriptive or of a quasi-classic character, La Roue,Ionica, Corinthia, and so forth. We reproduce a fewof these designs in Figs. 72, 73 and 74. Several otherhorticultural or architectural books of about the sameperiod also mention labyrinths or figure them in theirillustrations, but it is not clear, in many cases, whetherthese are intended to represent garden mazes or the 101. 102 flower-bed labyrinths that we have just mentioned. Insome instances, where the beds were occupied by shrubs,we have a sort of link between the garden labyrinth andthe hedge maze proper. An illustration in a book of 1573on the gardens of the Villa dEste at Tivoli, dedicatedto Catherine de Medici by the author, Stefano Duperac,shows four rectangular labyrinths, all of the same is unlikely that in such circumstances they would allhave been formed of tall hedges, and we may thereforejudge them to have been of the flower-bed type or perhapsof dwarf box. We find a reference to the herbal labyrinth in LaMaison Rustique, by Charles Estienne (Paris, 1573),under the heading of Kitchen Garden Planning: Et sera bon dresser a ceste fin une planche de sauge. . encore une de sariette, & hyssope, de cost, debasilic, aspic, baume, pouliot & une de camomille pourfaire les sieges & labyrinthes, que Ton nomme Daed
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectlabyrin, bookyear1922
