Gardens of the French Renaissance

[2] In the 13th century, the Italian landscape architect Pietro de' Crescenzi wrote a treatise called Opus Ruralium Commodium, which laid out a formal plan for gardens, ornamented with topiary sculptures, trees and bushes trimmed into architectural shapes, following a tradition begun by the Romans.

"[4] In his design of the gardens of the Cortile del Belvedere in Rome, the architect Bramante (1444–1544) introduced the idea of perspective, using a long axis perpendicular to the palace, along which he placed parterres and fountains.

The ideas of a "garden-island" in a lake, such as the one in the Boboli Gardens in Florence, of statues of giants coming out of earth in the park of the Villa di Pratolino, and the theme of labyrinth were all taken from the imaginary voyages of Poliphile.

When he returned to France in 1496, he convinced and brought back with him 22 Italian artists, including a monk and master gardener from Naples named Pacello da Mercogliano.

They decided to reproduce in Amboise the marvels of Tuscany and elected a 15 hectares amphitheater-shaped land in the heart of the city to realize the King's dream of Poggioreale.

[7] Charles VIII ordered the construction of Château-Gaillard, Amboise, and Pacello chose this royal domain to introduce and acclimatize the first orange trees in France.

He created lawns, floral beds and settings for his "Arte del Verde" and successfully introduced Italian style gardens for the very first time in France.

At the beginning of the 16th century, King Francis I, who had also visited Italy and had met Leonardo da Vinci, built gardens in the new style on three terraces of different levels bordered by the old walls of his Château de Blois.

Besides the parterres of flowers, the gardens produced a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, including orange and lemon trees in boxes, which were taken indoors in winter.