John Evelyn and His Milieu

The British Library, 2004 8vo (25 cm), IX, 298 pp. Publisher's cloth and 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 (including "Evelyn's bindings" by Mirjam Foot, "John Evelyn and his books" by Giles Mandelbrote, "John Evelyn and the print" by Antony Griffiths), 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.