Burghley House Rizzoli Book
A remarkable tour through Burghley House
Step into the lavish interiors, extraordinary architecture and parklands, and unrivalled collections of the grandest surviving sixteenth-century estate in Britain through the pages of Rizzoli's Burghley House book.
With sumptuous photography made specially for the book and imagery drawn from Burghley’s private archives, this book is a privileged tour of Burghley House and its remarkable history.
Intro from Miranda tbc title
Rizzoli telephoned Reschio two years ago and suggested an opulent illustrated book focusing on the estate’s thousand year history. The timing was right, as Benedikt Bolza recalls, “When the Reschio Hotel opened in May 2021, it captured all the limelight, overshadowing the significant achievements of the Estate’s past 3 decades. I decided that a book would help restore the balance and illustrate how the hotel, despite being much-loved, is just a small part of the entire Estate.”
With fabulous photographs and a well-documented archive that graphically shows how the landscape has evolved into an ecosystem including biodynamic farming, and how, from 50 ruins, 31 houses have metamorphosised into stunning architecturally designed houses still leaving some gems for the future. There was much material and many layers to peel back.
I did not want just another coffee table book filled with beautiful pictures,” said Benedikt, “the writing was equally important to me. We selected Steve King who really understood Reschio and how the family is at one with the land – with him we decided to use the alphabet to cherry pick 26 important aspects of Reschio.”
We co-art-directed the book and when it came to the cover, it was a unanimous decision - an impromptu shot that Benedikt had taken of his wife, Nencia as they selected paintings to hang in the castle. We love how the doyenne from a former age, gazes out to the castle’s current matriarch.
From Burghley’s inception as Cecil’s “prodigy house” to its remarkable renovation and the development of its parklands by Capability Brown in the eighteenth century, to the estate’s preservation efforts today, this is a rare and detailed look inside one of the gems in the British landscape.
Including 552 pages plus 6 large-scale plans, 32 plans and maps,7 reconstruction drawings, 361 colour and black-and-white illustrations. Abbreviations, Primary Sources, Bibliography and Index.