Baron Joseph Friedrich zu Racknitz’s pioneering ( ) is little known today. Racknitz, a German aristocrat, traced an early global history of design and ornament through discussions of what he distinguished as twenty-four essential regional historical tastes. He included those of a diverse group of ancient classical civilizations, European nations and peoples, Eastern civilizations, and more exotic reaches of the world.   This sensitive and informed translation by Simon Swynfen Jervis also includes reproductions of the original color plates and essays on Racknitz’s biography, his publication, and the deeper German Enlightenment context, making this an essential volume for studying eighteenth- and nineteenth-century architecture, decorative arts, and garden design.