Beginnings
Probably the most influential garden from European antiquity surrounded the villa built for the emperor Hadrian at Tivoli near Rome. Remnants of this garden have survived to this day and were to have considerable influence during the Renaissance. The garden as a whole covered approximately 7 square miles (18 square kilometres), and included theatres, baths, libraries, sculpture gardens and pavilions of an enormous extent. It was in fragments rather than in its entirety that Tivoli was to prove influential.
Most of the other early gardens we know of in Greece (5th century BCE), around Roman villas, in the Islamic world, in Japan, and in medieval Europe were in enclosed courtyard or cloisters, but during the fifteenth century in Italy and Spain gardens appear which look out across the countryside borrowing the pleasure...
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Citation: Clark, Robert, Caroline Holmes. "The English Landscape Garden". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 November 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1509, accessed 05 December 2025.]
