Claude Mollet (ca. 1564 – shortly before 1649), ''premier jardinier du Roy'' — first gardener to three French kings,

Henri IV Henry IV (french: Henri IV; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry or Henry the Great, was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarc ...

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown ...

and the young

Louis Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis ( ...

XIV — was a member of the Mollet dynasty of French garden designers in the seventeenth century. His father was Jacques Mollet, gardener at the

château d'Anet The Château d'Anet is a château near Dreux, in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France, built by Philibert de l'Orme from 1547 to 1552 for Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II of France. It was built on the former château at the ...

, where Italian formal gardening was introduced to France and where Claude apprenticed, and his son was

André Mollet André Mollet (died before 16 June 1665) was a French garden designer, the son of Claude Mollet—gardener to three French kings—and the grandson of Jacques Mollet, gardener at the château d'Anet, where Italian formal gardening was introduc ...

, who took the French style to Holland, Sweden and England. Claude Mollet00

In the woodcuts in

Olivier de Serres Olivier de Serres (; 1539–1619) was a French author and soil scientist whose '' Théâtre d'Agriculture'' (1600) was the accepted textbook of French agriculture in the 17th century. Biography Serres was born in 1539 at Villeneuve-de-Berg, ...

' work dedicated to Henri IV, ' (Paris 1600), the plans laid out in royal gardens are by Claude Mollet, who was a friend of the author, who praises Mollet's designs for the herbs and shrubs speaking in letters, devices, cyphers, coats-of-arms, frames, ships and other things, imitated with marvelous industry and patience. As de Serres did, Mollet maintained two tree nurseries, in the outskirts of the

Faubourg Saint-Honoré "Faubourg" () is an ancient French term historically equivalent to " fore-town" (now often termed suburb or ). The earliest form is , derived from Latin , 'out of', and Vulgar Latin (originally Germanic) , 'town' or 'fortress'. Traditionally, thi ...

, west of Paris. He claimed to have introduced

boxwood ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

as an edging to his parterre patterns, each like "un tapis de Turquie" ("a Turkish carpet") isolated in . Mollet's volume ''Théâtre des plans et jardinages'', which contains autobiographical information, was published by his son in 1652, after his death. The manuscriptThe manuscript is in the Staatsbibliothek, Munich (Karling, p. 8, note 6) was written many years before, about 1613–15, and revised over the years. A handsome calligraphic copy now at

Dumbarton Oaks Dumbarton Oaks, formally the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, is a historic estate in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was the residence and garden of wealthy U.S. diplomat Robert Woods Bliss and his wife, M ...

was dedicated to Louis XIII shortly before the king's death (1643).In it he acknowledged the influence upon him of Étienne Dupérac, the architect of

Saint Germain-en-Laye Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris. Inhabitants are called ''Saint-Germanois'' or ''Saint-Ge ...

. Mollet states that Henri IV commissioned him to lay out the terraces at the new

château of Saint Germain-en-Laye A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowaday ...

in 1595 and thereafter at

Château de Fontainebleau Palace of Fontainebleau (; ) or Château de Fontainebleau, located southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. The medieval castle and subsequent palace served as a residence ...

, and at Montceaux-en-Brie as well as at the

Tuileries The Tuileries Palace (french: Palais des Tuileries, ) was a royal and imperial palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine, directly in front of the Louvre. It was the usual Parisian residence of most French monarchs, from ...

, where he was in charge throughout his active career (Karling, p. 7) and where the central garden axis that he remade after depredations by soldiers in 1593 has been extended far to the west, as the ''

axe historique The ''Axe historique'' (; "historical axis") is a line of monuments, buildings, and thoroughfares that extends from the centre of Paris, France, to the west. It is also known as the ''Voie Triomphale'' (; "triumphal way"). The Axe Historique ...

'' of Paris.

Notes

External links

Online version of André Mollet's "Le jardin de plaisir"

References

*Sten Karling, "The importance of André Mollet", in ''The French Formal Garden'', 1974. Elizabeth B. MacDougall and F. Hamilton Hazlehurst, editors (Dumbarton Oaks) This is the basis for the information in this article. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mollet, Claude 17th-century French writers 17th-century French male writers French didactic writers French astrological writers French garden writers French Baroque garden designers 1560s births 17th-century deaths Members of the Académie royale d'architecture French male non-fiction writers Architects from Versailles