Claude Mollet (ca 1564-shortly before 1649),
premier jardinier du Roy—first gardener in fact to three French kings,
Henri IVHenry IV was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France. His parents were Queen Jeanne III and King Antoine of Navarre.As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the Wars of Religion before...
,
Louis XIIILouis XIII reigned as King of France and Navarre from 1610 to 1643.-Early life, 1601—1610:Born at the Château de Fontainebleau, Louis XIII was the eldest child of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici . As son of the king, he was a Fils de France, and as the eldest son, the Dauphin...
and the young
Louis XIVLouis XIV , popularly known as the Sun King , was King of France and of Navarre His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.Louis began personally governing France after the death...
—was a member of the Mollet dynasty of French garden designers in the seventeenth century. His father was
Jacques Mollet, gardener at the
château d'AnetThe Château d'Anet is a French château near Dreux built by Philibert de l'Orme from 1547 to 1552 for Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II of France...
, where Italian formal gardening was introduced to France and where Claude apprenticed, and his son was
André MolletAndré Mollet was a French garden designer, the son of Claude Mollet—gardener to three French kings—and the grandson of Jacques Mollet, gardener at the château d'Anet, where Italian formal gardening was introduced to France....
, who took the French style to Holland, Sweden and England.
In the woodcuts in
Olivier de SerresOlivier de Serres was a French author and soil scientist whose Théâtre d'Agriculture was the text book of French agriculture in the 1600s. . The work was notable for its recommendation to wine growers that they plant 5-6 varieties in their vineyards to balance the risk of a crop failing, and the...
' work dedicated to Henri IV,
(Paris 1600), the plans laid out in royal gardens are by Claude Mollet, who was a friend of the author, who praises Mollet's designs for the herbs and shrubs speaking in letters, devices, cyphers, coats-of-arms, frames, ships and other things, imitated with marvelous industry and patience.
As de Serres did, Mollet maintained two tree nurseries, in the outskirts of the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, west of Paris.
Claude Mollet (ca 1564-shortly before 1649),
premier jardinier du Roy—first gardener in fact to three French kings,
Henri IVHenry IV was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France. His parents were Queen Jeanne III and King Antoine of Navarre.As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the Wars of Religion before...
,
Louis XIIILouis XIII reigned as King of France and Navarre from 1610 to 1643.-Early life, 1601—1610:Born at the Château de Fontainebleau, Louis XIII was the eldest child of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici . As son of the king, he was a Fils de France, and as the eldest son, the Dauphin...
and the young
Louis XIVLouis XIV , popularly known as the Sun King , was King of France and of Navarre His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.Louis began personally governing France after the death...
—was a member of the Mollet dynasty of French garden designers in the seventeenth century. His father was
Jacques Mollet, gardener at the
château d'AnetThe Château d'Anet is a French château near Dreux built by Philibert de l'Orme from 1547 to 1552 for Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II of France...
, where Italian formal gardening was introduced to France and where Claude apprenticed, and his son was
André MolletAndré Mollet was a French garden designer, the son of Claude Mollet—gardener to three French kings—and the grandson of Jacques Mollet, gardener at the château d'Anet, where Italian formal gardening was introduced to France....
, who took the French style to Holland, Sweden and England.
In the woodcuts in
Olivier de SerresOlivier de Serres was a French author and soil scientist whose Théâtre d'Agriculture was the text book of French agriculture in the 1600s. . The work was notable for its recommendation to wine growers that they plant 5-6 varieties in their vineyards to balance the risk of a crop failing, and the...
' work dedicated to Henri IV,
(Paris 1600), the plans laid out in royal gardens are by Claude Mollet, who was a friend of the author, who praises Mollet's designs for the herbs and shrubs speaking in letters, devices, cyphers, coats-of-arms, frames, ships and other things, imitated with marvelous industry and patience.
As de Serres did, Mollet maintained two tree nurseries, in the outskirts of the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, west of Paris. He claimed to have introduced
boxwoodBoxwood may refer to:*Boxwood or Buxus, a genus of about 70 species of shrubs and trees in the family Buxaceæ*Boxwood , a Greek Revival house built in 1840*Boxwood Public School, a school in Markham, Ontario...
as an edging to his parterre patterns, each like "un tapis de Turquie" ("a Turkish carpet") isolated in six-foot wide gravel walks.
Mollet's volume
Théâtre des plans et jardinages, which contains autobiographical information, was published by his son in 1652, after his death. The manuscript was written many years before, about 1613-15, and revised over the years. A handsome calligraphic copy now at
Dumbarton OaksDumbarton Oaks is a 19th century Federal-style mansion with famous gardens in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It currently houses the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, a center for scholarship in Byzantine studies, Pre-Columbian studies and the history of landscape...
was dedicated to Louis XIII shortly before the king's death (1643).In it he acknowledged the influence upon him of
Étienne DupéracÉtienne Dupérac or du Pérac was a French painter, draughtsman and engraver, and a topographer and antiquary, who arrived in Rome in 1559...
, the architect of Saint Germain-en-Laye. Mollet states that Henri IV commissioned him to lay out the terraces at the new château of Saint Germain-en-Laye in 1595 and thereafter at
Château de FontainebleauThe Palace of Fontainebleau, located 55 kilometres from the centre of Paris, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. The palace as it is today is the work of many French monarchs, building on an early 16th century structure of Francis I. The building is arranged around a series of courtyards...
, and at Monceaux-en-Brie as well as at the Tuileries, where he was in charge throughout his active career (Karling, p. 7) and where the central garden axis that he remade after depredations by soldiers in 1593 has been extended far to the west, as the
axe historiqueThe Axe historique is a line of monuments, buildings and thoroughfares that extends from the centre of Paris, France, to the west...
of Paris.
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