The ULB Düsseldorf has a comparatively high density of historical garden publications. They cover the most diverse subject areas of garden art from the 16th to the 20th century. For example, the collection contains an early German-language print edition of the most important medieval garden theory, the „Ruralia commoda“, written by the Bolognese jurist Petrus de Crescentiis around 1300. Characteristic and artistically as well as theoretically outstanding works were scientifically processed and systematized within the framework of a project seminar at the Institute for Art History of the Heinrich Heine University in cooperation with the ULB in the winter semester 2009/2010. The results were presented in the publication Gärten – wie sie im Buche stehenthat was published in 2011.

Below you will find digitized copies of a large part of the garden art history holdings of the ULB.