Anatole Tchikine is curator of rare books at Dumbarton Oaks, which he joined in 2012 as member of the Garden and Landscape Studies department. He is responsible for developing, interpreting, and managing the institute’s Rare Book Collection to promote and expand its resources through active support of fellows and researchers. His other duties involve organizing related exhibitions and scholarly events and creating digital content to showcase the Dumbarton Oaks holdings. He also functions as the Garden and Landscape Studies subject librarian. With Yota Batsaki, he is Co-Investigator of the Plant Humanities Initiative.
An architectural historian and specialist on early modern Italy, Tchikine holds a PhD from the University of Dublin, Trinity College. His work addresses the intersections of art and science, including the history of fountain design, botanical gardens, and collecting and representations of nature. He is the author, with Pierre de la Ruffinière du Prey, of Francesco Ignazio Lazzari’s Discrizione della villa pliniana: Visions of Antiquity in the Landscape of Umbria (2021) and coeditor of The Botany of Empire in the Long Eighteenth Century (2016) and Military Landscapes (2021). His articles and reviews have appeared in Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, Renaissance Quarterly, Places Journal, JoLA, and Dumbarton Oaks symposia volumes, among other internationally recognized publications.
Email: TchikineA@doaks.org