Cultivated Power explores the collection, cultivation, and display of flowers in early modern France at the historical moment when flowering plants piqued the curiosity of European gardeners and botanists, merchants and ministers, and dukes and kings alike.

Cultivated Power
Flowers, Culture, and Politics in the Reign of Louis XIV

Elizabeth Hyde

2005 | 368 pages | Cloth $59.95
History

Table of Contents

Ch. 1. Disorderly flowers
Floral seduction: death, sex, and flowers
Trading on the power of flowers

Ch. 2. Refashioning the culture of flowers in early modern France
Curiosity and flowers
The sweet society of the curious florists

Ch. 3. Cultivating the flower
The florists' flowers
Unlocking the door to the temple of flora

Ch. 4. Cultivating the man
The theater of the goddess of flowers
Nature into art
"Jardin d'Hyver," or flowers in print

Ch. 5. Cultivating the king
Royal precedents
Flowers in the garden of Louis XIV
Floral mercantilism
Flowers and the "Histoire du Roi"

Appendices
A. Extract of the inventory by . . . Sieur Cottereau of flowering plants and bulbs that he offers to furnish for the gardens of the royal households
B. Plants included in Jean Donneau de Vise's Histoire de Louis le Grand