Maurice Scève (1501?-1564?) is a major French poet of the sixteenth century best known for Délie (1544), a series of decasyllabic dizains dedicated to his beloved lady. He also wrote a most ambitious encyclopaedic poem, Microscosme (1562), embracing the whole creation. This paper analyzes in some detail the twelve lines he devotes to gardens and relates them to the contemporary art of gardens.
Introduction
Maurice Scève’s encyclopaedic poem, Microcosme, has been eclipsed in fame by his other poetical masterpiece, Délie. I shall comment here on the section of Microcosme Scève devotes to gardens. 1 To relate Renaissance garden architecture to poetry and rhetorics is not unprecedented. 2,3