This volume focuses on the outstanding contributions made by botany and the mathematical sciences to the genesis and development of early modern garden art and garden culture. The many facets of the mathematical sciences and botany point to the increasingly "scientific" approach that was being adopted in and applied to garden art and garden culture in the early modern period. This development was deeply embedded in the philosophical, religious, political, cultural and social contexts, running parallel to the beginning of processes of scientization so characteristic for modern European history. This volume strikingly shows how these various developments are intertwined in gardens for various purposes.

This book reports on efforts by geoscientists and climate modellers (KIHZ) to assess natural climate variability during the Holocene. Part 1 is an overview of the climate system and its dynamics. Part 2 describes the efforts of the KIHZ members to reconstruct past climate by using proxy data derived from ice cores, lake sediments, tree rings and corals, statistical analyses and climate models.