Claude Mollet
Claude Mollet (ca. 1564 – shortly before 1649), premier jardinier du Roy — first gardener to three French kings, Henry IV, Louis XIII and the young Louis 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, where Italian Renaissance gardening was introduced to France and where Claude apprenticed, and his son was André Mollet, who took the French style to Holland, Sweden and England. • Illustration — Claude Mollet from André Mollet's "le Jardin de Plaisir" In the woodcuts in Olivier de Serres' work dedicated to Henry IV, Le Théâtre d'agriculture et mesnage des champs (Paris 1600), the plans laid out in royal gardens are by Claude Mollet, 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.
Also recorded as Claude, the elder Mollet · Claude Mollet the Elder
Claude Mollet
Michel Lasne · Public domain
- Nationality
- France
- Occupation
- architect · writer · gardener
- Languages
- French
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Claude Mollet (ca. 1564 – shortly before 1649), premier jardinier du Roy — first gardener to three French kings, Henry IV, Louis XIII and the young Louis 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, where Italian Renaissance gardening was introduced to France and where Claude apprenticed, and his son was André Mollet, who took the French style to Holland, Sweden and England. • Illustration — Claude Mollet from André Mollet's "le Jardin de Plaisir" In the woodcuts in Olivier de Serres' work dedicated to Henry IV, Le Théâtre d'agriculture et mesnage des champs (Paris 1600), the plans laid out in royal gardens are by Claude Mollet, 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.
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wikidata · Q919880 · wikipedia · Claude Mollet
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He claimed to have introduced boxwood as an edging to his parterre patterns, each like "un tapis de Turquie" ("a Turkish carpet") isolated in 6 ft. The manuscript was written many years before, about 1613–15, and revised over the years. A handsome calligraphic copy now at Dumbarton Oaks 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. Mollet states that Henry IV commissioned him to lay out the terraces at the new Château of Saint Germain-en-Laye in 1595 and thereafter at the Palace of Fontainebleau, and at Montceaux-en-Brie as well as at the Tuileries Garden, 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 of Paris.
The following works and productions are recorded by name or by count. The register further records that claude Mollet is recorded with the occupation landscape architect. Recorded with the occupation architect. It is also recorded that claude Mollet is recorded with the occupation writer. Recorded with the occupation gardener. Institutional cataloguing adds that claude Mollet is recorded as a citizen of France. It is also recorded that claude Mollet is recorded with the gender male. The same evidence establishes that claude Mollet was born on 1 January 1557. Mollet died on 1 January 1650.
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- “Claude Mollet”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
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- Wikidata, structured authority record Q919880: Claude Mollet
General reference · Wikidata
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- 1.D'après un document indiqué par Emmanuel Lurin, « La belle vue de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Nouveaux documents sur les jardins en terrasses construits sous le règne d’Henri IV », Bulletin de la Société des Historiens de l’Art Français, année 2003, 2004, p. 9-31.
- 2.Liste des éditions du Théâtre des plans et jardinages sur le site Architectura. Consulté le 10 juillet 2012.
- 3.Voir : Dominique Garrigues, Jardins et jardiniers de Versailles au grand siècle, , Champ Vallon (collection Époques), Seyssel, 2001 extraits
- 4.Eugène Piot, État civil de quelques artistes français : extrait des registres des paroisses des anciennes archives de la Ville de Paris, , Librairie Pagnerre, Paris, 1873 (lire en ligne)
- 5.État general de la France, enrichi de gravures, tome 1, , Paris, 1789 (Lire en ligne)
Bibliography printed in the source article · 3
- Hervé Brunon, « Claude Mollet, Théâtre des plans et jardinages (1652) », in Les Livres d’architecture. Manuscrits et imprimés publiés en France, écrits ou traduits en français ( - ) [base numérique], sous la direction de Frédérique Lemerle et Yves Pauwels, Tours, Centre d’études supérieures de la Renaissance, notice mise en ligne le .
- Michel Conan, « Claude Mollet (v. 1563-v. 1649) et sa famille », in Créateurs de jardins et de paysages de la Renaissance au , I, De la Renaissance au début du , sous la direction de Michel Racine, Arles-Versailles, Actes Sud / École nationale supérieure du paysage, 2001, .
- Sten Karling, « The Importance of André Mollet and His Family for the Development of the French Formal Garden », in The French Formal Garden, sous la direction de Elizabeth. B. MacDougall et Francis H. Hazlehurst, Washington, DC, Dumbarton Oaks, 1974, .
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Design
11,558 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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