Making its first appearance in Medieval Europe, the hortus conclusus or enclosed garden captures and isolates aspects of nature and landscape in a relatively small, confined space. It makes these aspects manageable by imposing on them its own pictorial, geometrical and spatial order. The book opens with a historical section describing the ingredients and design concepts that made the hortus conclusus such a success. This is followed by an in-depth study of historical examples, amongst them the Romanesque garden of the monastery of Santas Creus, the Gothic garden of the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, the Alhambra, and giardino segreto of the Villa Capponi. Recent designs by Alexandre Chemetoff, Daniel Libeskind and Dom Hans van der Laan show how the hortus conclusus, dressed in contemporary garb, has a part to play in the urban landscape. Just the compactness of the enclosed garden makes it so effective in places where space is a scarce commodity, as in the our ever-swelling metropolises. Whether on the theoretical front or because of the many international examples analysed within its pages, this lavishly illustrated volume is a worthy addition to the discourse on reintroducing the hortus conclusus into the urban landscape of today.