As my designated book discusses the topic of oriental gardening, these were the first keywords I entered in the “Alice” search engine. Of course, I had to try out all the “Alice Brains”, and I quickly found, that in time slots, before my book was published, there were less search results, if there even were any. This may be, because most of the search results came from books, which were published after “A Dissertation on oriental gardening”, mentioning or analyzing the book or topics that were mentioned in there.
This led me to the realization, that the first book I’m going to choose is going to be one, that discusses mine. So, I chose “Xenotheka” in “Alice’s Brain” and pressed “find”, not “explore”.
The book, that fit my expectations the most was “A History of Garden Art” by Marie Luise Gothein, published in 1913. It begins by examining evidence from archaeology and literature, hereby mentioning my designated book, as well as climate and soil conditions, to discuss the gardens of ancient Egypt and Assyria. It continues to survey developments worldwide until the twentieth century. Individual gardens, technical innovations, and fashions in horticulture are all discussed in detail, which makes the book a sort of sequel for “A Dissertation on oriental gardening” and other books discussing that topic, but much more global. I quite liked the fact, that the author did not only use the information given in the other books, but “used” it well.
To find the second book I typed in “dissertation on gardening” in the “Xenotheka Library” search engine and pressed find. After much scrolling I chose “Ramble, linger and gaze” by Katja Grillner, which was published in 2000. It explores a method of architectural research based on narrative dialogue and examines the gardentheories and literary garden representations of Thomas Whately («Observations on Modern gardening») and Joseph Heely («Letters on the Beauties of Hagley, Envil, and the Leasowes»). It also briefly mentions “A Dissertation on Oriental Gardening”, which obviously fits the focus of the book very well.