Mediaeval gardens - Hardcover

Harvey, John Hooper

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0713423951 ISBN 13: 9780713423952

Publisher: B.T. Batsford, 1981

Synopsis

Beginning with the legacy of classical gardening left by the Romans in Britain and Western Europe, and tracing its development to the early Tudor period, John Harvey has written a detailed, well-documented account of gardening in mediaeval times.The book demonstrates with the aid of illustrations that from the eleventh century at least, plants were grown and gardens laid out for their beauty as well as for their usefulness, and that gardening was linked to the planting of orchards and the formation of parks. The idea that before the Italian Renaissance gardening was purely utilitarian is shown to be ill-founded. While the main emphasis of the book is on English gardens, chapters deal with the influence of Southern Europe, notably Spain and Italy, and with the gradual introduction of foreign plants—trees, flowers, herbs and vegetables.Appendices include studies of the English royal gardeners, and the work of Friar Henry Daniel, the fourteenth-century herbalist whose manuscript provides the first direct account of English gardening. An outstanding feature is the list of over 250 species of plants, showing the dates at which they occur in English and Continental sources; this should prove of particular value to those undertaking the restoration of mediaeval gardens.With over 100 illustrations, many of them strikingly beautiful, taken from manuscripts, paintings, stained-glass windows and other sources, Mediaeval Gardens offers the reader an account of a neglected period in garden history, with unexpected insights into the social history of the time.Jacket Front, The Garden of Paradise by a Rhenish master, c. 1410 (Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main); Adam with spade outside the Garden of Eden, shown in a window in Canterbury Cathedral, c. 1178 (Angelo Hornak).216 pages, 11 colour photographs, 95 black and white photographs, 5 maps and plans( Description from the jacket flap )

About this title

About the Author

He is director of psychology at Allied Services Rehabilitation Hospital. He live & works in Scranton, Pennsylvania. ,P.

Edition details

• Publisher: B.T. Batsford
• Publication date: 1981
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0713423951
• ISBN 13: 9780713423952
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 199