Ana Duarte Rodrigues, Carmem Toribio Marín (Eds.),

The History of Water Management in the Iberian Peninsula between the 16^thand 19^th centuries.

(Birkhauser, 2020)

384pp. ISBN 978-3-030-34060-5 (print edition) / ISBN 78-3-030-34061-2 (e-book) [here]

Historiography on water management in the territory that is today Spain has highlighted the region’s role as a mediator between the Islamic masters of water and the Christian world. The history of water in Portugal is less known, and it has been taken for granted that is similar to its neighbour. This book compares two countries that have the same historical roots and, therefore, many similar stories, but at the same time, offers insights into particular aspects of each country.

What water devices were found? What were the models for these devices? How were they distributed in the villas and monastic enclosures? What impact did hydraulic theoretical knowledge have on these water systems, and how could these systems impact on hydraulic technology? Guided by these questions, this book covers the history of water in the most significant cities, the role of water in landscape transformation, the irrigation systems and water devices in gardens and villas, and, lastly, the theoretical and educational background on water management and hydraulics in the Iberian Peninsula between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries.

Ana Duarte Rodrigues, Ana Simões, Davide Sarso, Maria Paula Diogo (Eds.),

Gardens and Human Agency in the Anthropocene.

(Routledge, 2019)

238pp. ISBN 978-081-534-666-1 (print edition) / ISBN 978-135-117-024-6 (e-book) [here]

This volume discusses gardens as designed landscapes of mediation between nature and culture, embodying different levels of human control over wilderness, defining specific rules for this confrontation and staging different forms of human dominance. The contributing authors focus on ways of rethinking the garden and its role in contemporary society, using it as a crossover platform between nature, science and technology. Drawing upon their diverse fields of research, including History of Science and Technology, Environmental Studies, Gardens and Landscape Studies, Urban Studies, and Visual and Artistic Studies, the authors unveil various entanglements woven in the past between nature and culture, and probe the potential of alternative epistemologies to escape the predicament of fatalistic dystopias that often revolve around the Anthropocene debate.

Ana Duarte Rodrigues,

Uma história de jardins: a sua arte na tratadística e na literatura.

(Lisboa : Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal : Caleidoscópio, 2016)

263 pp. ISBN 978-972-565-517-7 (print edition) / ISBN 978-972-565-519-1 (e-book) [here] [here]

This book focuses on treatises and literary books and allowed the circulation of ideas, forms and knowledge about garden design and gardening techniques. It consists of two parts, the Studies - which include works developed by several national and foreign specialists - Ana Duarte Rodrigues, Ana Lemos, Ana Paiva Morais, Aurora Carapinha, Jean-Pierre Le Dantec, Manuel Patrocínio, Maria Teresa Caetano and Nicolas Fiévé - and the Catalogue, which reflects the nuclei of the exhibition with the same name that took place in 2014 at BNP. This catalogue covers the books that circulated in Portugal in the early modern period.