"This new biography ... is the first to make full use of Evelyn's huge unpublished archive deposited at the British Library in 1995. This crucial source evokes a broader and richer picture of Evelyn, his life and his friendships, than permitted by his own celebrated diaries."--Dust jacket.

John Evelyn (1620-1706) has long been known as one of the best-loved of English diarists. But he was much else besides: gardener, environmentalist, connoisseur, bibliophile, intellectual in government service, influential lay Anglican - in fact the quintessential virtuoso of seventeenth century England and a key figure in the assimilation of European culture there. These fifteen essays, all by leading experts in their fields, draw on The British Library's exceptionally rich holdings of Evelyn's books, manuscripts and family papers to explore for the first time the full range of his activity and influence.

Introduction: curiouser and curiouser -- 'The world do not grow old at all' -- Two worlds -- The decade of the diaries -- Prodigious revolutions -- 'Even private families are ... the best of governments' -- Private lives -- 'I do indulge myself a little the more in pleasure' -- Take nobody's word for it -- Pleasure above all things -- Hortulan affairs -- Exotic extravagances -- The affection which we have to books -- Epilogue: and so to bed -- Appendix: the true domestick intelligence

The great English writer and gardener John Evelyn (1620–1706) kept a diary all his life. Today, this diary is considered an invaluable source of information on more than fifty years of social, cultural, religious, and political life in seventeenth-century England. Evelyn’s work is often overshadowed by the literary contributions of his contemporary and friend, Samuel Pepys. This new biography changes that. John Dixon Hunt takes a fresh look at the life and work of one of England’s greatest diarists, focusing particularly on Evelyn’s “domesticity.” The book explores Evelyn’s life at home, and perhaps even more importantly, his domestication of foreign ideas and practices in England. During the English Civil Wars, Evelyn traveled extensively throughout Europe, taking in ideas on the management of estate design while abroad to apply them in England. Evelyn’s greatest accomplishment was the import of European garden art to the UK, a feat Hunt puts into context alongside a range of Evelyn’s social and ethical thinking. Illustrated with visual material from Evelyn’s time and from his own pen, the book is an ideal introduction to a hugely important figure in the shaping of early modern Britain.

The Letterbooks of John Evelyn, a collection of more than eight hundred letters selected by Evelyn himself, constitutes an essential new resource for scholars of seventeenth-century England.

John Evelyn (1620-1706) was a pivotal figure in 17th-century intellectual life in England. The contributors approach him and his work from diverse disciplines: architectural and intellectual history and histories of science, agriculture, gardens, and literature. They present the "Elysium Britannicum" as a central document of late European humanism.

Throughout the early modern period, scientific debate and governmental action became increasingly preoccupied with the environment, generating discussion across Europe and the wider world as to how to improve land and climate for human benefit. This discourse eventually promoted the reconsideration of long-held beliefs about the role of climate in upholding the social order, driving economies and affecting public health. Governing the Environment in the Early Modern World explores the relationship between cultural perceptions of the environment and practical attempts at environmental regulation and change between 1500 and 1800. Taking a cultural and intellectual approach to early modern environmental governance, this edited collection combines an interpretative perspective with new insights into a period largely unfamiliar to environmental historians. Using a rich and multifaceted narrative, this book offers an understanding as to how efforts to enhance productive aspects of the environment were both led by and contributed to new conceptualisations of the role of ‘nature’ in human society. This book offers a cultural and intellectual approach to early modern environmental history and will be of special interest to environmental, cultural and intellectual historians, as well as anyone with an interest in the culture and politics of environmental governance.

This book is about a single image - the frontispiece to Thomas Sprat’s History of the Royal-Society of London (1667). Designed by John Evelyn, and etched by Wenceslaus Hollar, it is arguably the best-known representation of seventeenth-century English science. The use of such plates to celebrate and legitimise the ‘new’ science of the period falls into a tradition that was well-established both in Britain and in Europe more generally, and which has increasingly attract attention from historians. Nevertheless, there are many questions to be asked about it and how it came into being. Was it an original composition by Evelyn, or is it based on earlier exemplars? Can all the scientific instruments, books and other objects that appear in it be identified, and what significance should be attached to their inclusion? Above all, how did the plate come to be designed in the first place, and what is its true relationship with Sprat’s book? In order to assess such issues, this study provides a full analysis of Evelyn’s image in its Royal Society setting and the wider world of early-modern science. The book first considers the overall iconography of the image and its message concerning Evelyn’s conception of the society’s role, before moving on to examine the myriad of details included in the plate and their significance. It concludes by considering the print’s history after publication, including the extent to which Evelyn used copies to exemplify the combination of technological and artistic accomplishment to which he believed the society should aspire.

Cedric C. Brown combines the study of literature and social history in order to recognize the immense importance of friendship bonds to early modern society. Drawing on new archival research, he acknowledges a wide range of types of friendship, from the intimate to the obviously instrumental, and sees these practices as often co-terminous with gift exchange. Failure to recognize the inter-connected range of a friendship spectrum has hitherto limited the adequacy of some modern studies of friendship, often weighted towards the intimate or gendered-related issues. This book focuses both on friendships represented in imaginative works and on lived friendships in many textual and material forms, in an attempt to recognize cultural environments and functions. In order to provide depth and coherence, case histories have been selected from the middle and later parts of the seventeenth century. Nevertheless many kinds of bonds are recognized, as between patron and client, mentor and pupil, within the family, within marriage, in courtship, or according to fashionable refined friendship theory. Both humanist and religious values systems are registered, and friendships are configured in cross-gendered and same-sex relationships. Theories of friendship are also included. Apart from written documents, the range of "texts" extends to keepsakes, pictures, funerary monument and memorial garden features. Figures discussed at length include Henry More and the Finch/Conway family, John Evelyn, Jeremy Taylor, Elizabeth Carey/Mordaunt, John Milton, Charles Diodati, Cyriac Skinner, Dorothy Osborne/Temple, William Temple, Lord Arlington, Sir Orlando Bridgeman, and Katherine Phillips and her circle, especially Anne Owen/Trevor and Sir Charles Cotterell.