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gardens-msg - 12/1/18

Medieval gardens. flowers. Books.

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NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

Thank you,

Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous

Stefan at florilegium.org

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From: STEVE.BOYLAN at office.wang.com (Steve Boylan)

Date: 14 Nov 90 18:27:51 GMT

Greetings to all upon the Rialto, and to Awilda Hlavdan!

Long ago, in digest V3 #165 (last week), Awilda asked for more information

on the "Garden of Monsters" at the Villa Orsini in Bomarzo, Italy. I

conferred with my housemate, who is a landscape designer and has a good

deal of knowledge on the history of gardens.

Very little is known about the history or construction of the Villa Orsini.

The only notable contemporary reference is a letter from Annibale Caro to

Vicino Orsini in 1564, which mentions the "teatri e mausolei" of Bomarzo.

There is a great deal of debate over who could have designed such a garden.

Some garden historians have attributed the design to the garden designer

Vignola, who designed the famous (and well documented!) Villa Lante eight

miles away; others make a case for Pirro Ligorio, who is known to be

associated with the Orsini family (Fulvio Orsini tried to have him appointed

as Michelangelo's successor at St. Peter's). However, no one has yet

uncovered any documentary evidence concerning the designer.

The garden itself is some distance from the Villa Orsini, down in a valley

dominated by huge rocky outcroppings (that's "several hundred yards" of

distance!). The sculptures were carved directly from the rocks, without

trying to move them! Many inscriptions in the garden refer to the "sacro

bosco" or sacred wood.

One author points out the many writers have ignored the fact that the

gardens of other villas in the area have sculptures and architectural

details which resemble elements of the garden at Bomarzo.

That seems to be all that is known about the garden. If you want to read

the references yourself, and see a few more (black and white) photographs,

I'd suggest the following books:

"The History of Gardens"; Christopher Thacker; University of

California Press, Berkely and Los Angeles; 1979; pp. 108-9.

"Italian Gardens"; Georgina Masson; pub. by Thames and Hudson Ltd.

and the Antique Collectors' Club Ltd., Woodbridge, Suffolk,

England; 1987; pp. 144-5 and plates 105-109.

Anyone up for a field trip?

- - Steve Boylan

Visitor to Carolingia

Kingdom of the East

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

From: destry at netcom.com (Fellwalker)

Subject: Re: Period plants

Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)

Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 02:52:51 GMT

kathleen keeler (kkeeler at unlinfo.unl.edu) wrote:

: Good gentles-

: A series of threads here deal with Period plants and Period gardens.

: The list you want depends on a number of things. Where your persona

: is, since the plants of Scandinavia are different from the plants of

: the Mediterranean. Second, purpose. Do you want garden plants or

: herbs, for example? Many of our garden herbs are European roadside

: weeds: no need to grow them, so they won't occur in gardens, rather,

: in Period you gathered them. Medicinal herbs and pot herbs are not

: quite identical, and the best lists are for medicinal herbs.

: At the simplest level, European native plants are Period plants.

: Getting past that is the fun of how far African or Asian plants were

: carried into Europe and when...

Many plants were cultivated in gardens and "escaped"...especially the

herbs (many of which were basically weeds and are incredible prolific),

becoming naturalized in countries they didn't originate in. (This goes

for food plants as well as herbs) Good examples would be Dandelions and

Crabgrass in the United States, which were brought over by colonists as

food plants in the 1500's. However, most people in America probably have

no idea that these plant were deliberately imported and are not native to

this country.

Another for instance is that Thyme is not native to Britain, although

you can find it around growing wild, and one herb catalog I have still

sells cuttings from a direct descendant of a Thyme plant that's been

growing in a British herb garden since the 1400's.

There wer _many_ plants that were grown in "gardens" in period, even

if that meant a woman uprooting a favorite herb plant and moving it next

to the house so it would be handy (I always forget to pick my Basil

before it gets dark out and I have to run to the other side of the house

with a flashlight...this year I'm digging up the plant and sticking it

next to the kitchen)...

The additional challenge, therefore...is not only to figure out if a

plant is native or introduced, but when it was introduced, if it

naturalized wild, if it stayed in cultivation, if it was only available in

cultivation,etc,etc,etc. If you see plans for a 9th century French herb

garden that includes Parsely you can assume someone was cultivating

Parsely in _France_ in the 9th century...however, The Oxford Book of Food

Plants states that Parsely wasn't grown there in _Britain_ until the 16th

century.

*sigh

-----Max

-- ...with rings on her fingers and bells on her toes... <destry at netcom.com>

From: margritt at mindspring.com (Margritte)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Medieval Flowers

Date: 23 Aug 1995 00:38:43 GMT

Organization: MindSpring Enterprises

In article <5550581121081995/A24961/EROS/1198AAFA3100* at MHS>,

CHRIS.DAQUINO at qldgov.telememo.AU (DAQUINO) wrote:

> Hi Everyone

> I am hoping to pick the brains of one and all here and ask what flowers vaiety

> and colours would be considered period?

Barbara Damrosch has written a book called "Theme Gardens" which includes

plans for (among other things) a Medieval Paradise garden, a Shakespeare

garden, and a garden of old roses. Some of the flowers she suggests for

the medieval paradise garden, or "plesaunce", include:

English primroses

English daisies

scarlet cranesbill

"gilliflowers" (probably border carnations or clove pinks, the ancestors

of modern carnations, sweet William and pinks, but it may also refer to

other flowers, such as wallflowers and stock)

columbines

forget-me-nots

johnny-jump-ups

sweet violets

pink speecwell

old varieties of daffodils (these do not have the large-cupped trumpets

that modern ones do)

old varieties of roses (particularly gallicas or musk roses)

Madonna lilies (symbolizing Mary)

lilies of the valley

Myrtle (also known as Periwinkle or Vinca)

wooly yarrow

A few of the better known flowers from the Shakespeare garden include:

marigolds (get a single variety, yellow or orange)

anemones

crown imperials

honeysuckle

as well as herbs such as:

sweet marjoram

rosemary

lemon balm

hyssop

lavender

rue

thyme

Hope this help. The book will give you a better idea what to look for, if

you can find it.

-Margritte

From: ladyallyn at aol.com (Lady Allyn)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: medieval rosary

Date: 12 Jul 1996 02:41:54 -0400

Gentle Friend,

The current and just past issue of Herb Quarterly have also had well

researched info on medieval gardens. The current issue has Ancient Rome

and Medieval England articles.

Peace,

Lady Allyn

From: mittle at panix.com (Arval d'Espas Nord)

Newsgroups: alt.heraldry.sca

Subject: Re: garden rose

Date: 5 Feb 1997 12:24:01 -0500

Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC

Tamara asked:

> My question to anyone out there is: Can I use the "Garden Rose" on my

> banner.

As far as we've been able to discover, the garden rose was not used in

period armory. They may be used in Society armory, but there is no

distinction drawn between a the open-petalled heraldic rose and a garden

rose. If you register arms with "a rose", you can draw it either way; but

it would be more authentic to draw it as a heraldic rose.

You may not know that although modern roses are almost always tulip-shaped,

medieval roses were almost always open, looking very much like the heraldic

rose. So the heraldic rose is much more typical of medieval art in

general.

There may be a confusion here: The term "garden rose" does not imply the

presence of the stem. Either a heraldic rose or a garden rose can have a

stem. The difference lies in the shape of the flower. A heraldic rose

with a stem is blazoned "a rose slipped".

You can find a picture of a heraldic rose in any book of heraldry.

===========================================================================

Arval d'Espas Nord mittle at panix.com

From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON)

Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 04:56:38 EDT

To: SCA-Cooks at eden.com

Subject: Re:[ck] medieval gardening book

_The Medieval Garden_, by Sylvia Landsberg, Thames & Hudson, 1995. ISBN

0-500-01691-7. Thames & Hudson, Inc. 500 Fifth Avenue, NY 10110.

Just picked this up at the library today. The author has designed

several 12th to 16th C. gardens, including one at Shrewsbury Quest for

the fictional Brother Cadfael and one in Winchester called Queen

Eleanor's Garden. Contains lists of plants from period works, photos of

present day gardens, reproductions of garden plans, 14th & 15th C.

paintings which include gardens, labors of the month paintings, lots of

good illustrations. Have not seen some of the reproductions before; they

are of interest to the costumer, as well. This is nice to browse through

even if you are not a gardener, as I am not, but wonderful, if like

Susannah, you are planning to have a medieval garden of your own.

There's a photo that contains a yellow flowered woad plant in bloom, too.

Peasants' gardens, Ladies' pleasaunce, orchards, all kinds of gardens, here.

This also has suggestions for your own garden, vine arbor, rose trellis,

and much more. This is a nice book. Tremendous Bibliography. Happy

reading.

Allison

PS This is the post I sent several other lists--some have already seen it

and liked it as much as I do. There's really far more than I first

mentioned.

Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 16:29:15 -0400 (EDT)

From: Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adl15.adelphi.edu>

Subject: SC - colewort

Sylvia Landsberg, in _The Medieval Garden_ (pub. Thames & Hudson, ISBN

0-500-01691-7), discusses the substitutions she had to make in

designing gardens for medieval living-history sites in England:

... The lack of a suitable small-headed cabbage is not so important as

the loss in England, only recently, of the colewort, ubiquitous in

medieval times, its nearest English relative being a non-curly kale. At

present in the Bayleaf re-creation we grow its nearest European

equivalent, the American collard, probably introduced from Europe in the

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This, mixed with Hungry Gap Kale,

has proven to be the best way to achieve the all-year growth noted by

Jon Gardener in the fourteenth century. In re-creation it is preferable

to use a 'look-alike' rather than omit a basic plant.

Landsberg reproduces a detail from Brueghel's "The Numbering at

Bethlehem" illustrating something she claims is colewort. The picture

is fuzzy, but they look to me like Romaine lettuce raised several inches

off the ground by a stalk. I don't know what collard and kale look like

in the field, so they could look like those too.

mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib

Stephen Bloch

sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu

Date: Wed, 09 Apr 1997 13:23:31 -0500

From: JANINE BRANNON <janineb at smtpgw.mis.ssh.edu>

To: sca-cooks at eden.com

Subject: Re: Hello! -Reply

Angie Capozello wrote:

> And also, I'd like to know what sort of spices, herbs

> and veggies were grown in the typical medieval kitchen garden (if they had

> them - I'm sure they didn't buy everything at the market). I'd love to

> start my own garden so I can have fresh foods when I'm experimenting with

> a new recipe.

I don't know if anyone here subscribes to a magazine called _The Herb

Quarterly_, but in it's summer '96 issue, it has an article by N.S. Gill

_Medieval Roots of my Modern Thyme Garden_. In it, she lists some

common modern culinary herbs, such as sage, lemon balm, thyme,

lovage, parsley, oregano, chives, as well as some medicinal herbs such

as good ole' echinacea, evening primrose, yarrow. Also listed was

cabbage and strawberries, and numerous flowery plants such as pinks,

pansies and nasturtiums, to name a few. Since I have just about all of

the above in my garden (or will, as soon as it stops snowing), I guess I'm

on my way to medieval cooking!

Janine

Date: Fri, 18 Jul 1997 07:54:53 -0500 (CDT)

From: nweders at mail.utexas.edu (ND Wederstrandt)

Subject: SC - townies (butchery)

When I was researching a paper on gardening I found out that some

large cities such as London and Venice had thriving nursery businesses,

where people would bring plants into the city for resale. This also

included many pot plants and small trees. If you look in the backgrounds

of a great many medieval and Renaissance paintings you can see trees and

shrubs in pots. There is also evidence that produce was brought in and

sold much like a farmer's market or from day to day salespeople. A couple

of years ago we did a fair where people brought various things to sell

including vegies and fruits. Most people bartered and everyone had a lot

of fun buying food for dinner. I think, in most large cities, there was a

great deal of specialization.... mustard makers, butchers, bakers... I

think it is safer to say that country people knew how to do butchery and

candlemaking and such, but in the cities much of the commody making arose

from individual tradesmen.

Clare St. John

Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 22:49:53 -0500 (EST)

From: LrdRas at aol.com

Subject: Re: SC - Period Potatoes

<< My question is this: Were the potatoes that were grown as a court

garden novelty more decorative than the modern varieties. I have a hard

time picturing modern potatoes and tomatoes decorating anything but a

kitchen garden. None of the nightshade family is anthing much to look

at-all things considered.?

thanks!

Ivy~ >>

Potatoes and tomatoes can be decorative and bushy if kept pinched back like

you would take care of any other decorative plant. The tomatoes used in

Elizabethan borders were white tomatoes, in all probability, and if kept

pinched back the large green then white fruits would have been

extraordinarily awesome to the eye.

I would suspect that the novelty of the potato was in the end product, with

blue, red, striped, yellow , pink and a myriad of other colors being the norm

for the color of the wild spuds found in Peru.

By the way, pinching plants back is where the term "green thumb" came from as

any who spend time in the garden can attest to. :-)

Ras

Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 12:06:21 EDT

From: Tollhase1 at aol.com

Subject: Re: SC - OT - OOP - All members well and accounted for? (Tornadoes)

Enclosed is a religious site that focus on medieval plants and gardens. It

gives, religious, common and Latin names for items and where to get them.

Naturally they explain how such a garden should be planned and why.

http://www.mgardens.org/

Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 09:47:24 -0800

From: "Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at efn.org>

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Greetings from Edmonton, Alberta

Amanda Baker wrote:

> Olwen asked:

> > What is an "allotment garden"?

> It is a fine British tradition, the history of which I

> know lamentably little, whereby significant areas within

> a city boundary are give over to cultivation by residents,

> each of whom has their own small plot within the large field.

> I speculate that the practise goes back to the Industrial

> Revolution, when people moving into the cities were given

> land to cultivate as they would have had in the country,

> to make up for the lack of gardens associated with the

> city houses?

The tradition is much older than that! It goes back to the middle ages-

there was a garden area set aside for village residents just outside or

next to the main clump of cottages, which are grouped closely for

security. AND conceptually, works the same way the fields themselves,

which were plotted out and divided up, with a section that was the

lord's, which everyone was responsible for cultivation. If you look at

maps and pictures of cultivated fields, you can usually pick out which

is the community garden area.

I can't give a reference because as usual my books are elsewhere- but

Jacques Le Goff has written quite a bit on agricultural practice, and

there's also quite a few books about farming practices and the farm

economy in England in the 13t-15th centuries. Unfortunately, the one I'm

picturing I can tell you the paperback is blue and yellow with a picture

of John of Gaunt on the cover, but I can't remember the author's name.

Interestingly enough, there are communities in the States that are doing

the same thing with garden space- there's several community gardens in

Eugene, for instance. There was even one near the U of O Family Housing,

but most of the students I knew didn't have time (including me) to do

much more than herbs or tomatoes on the front porch...

'Lainie

Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 14:54:44 -0400 (EDT)

From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks]2 - medieval herb garden

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

On Tue, 1 Jul 2003, Heleen Greenwald wrote:

> Your garden arrangements sound wonderful!!

> I promised myself that I would read up on medieval gardening this past

> winter but didn't so that is still in the works. But I am enlarging my

> garden space this year so that next year I will truly have the space

> for a whole bunch of cool herbs and plants!

FYI, I have some notes on medieval gardens up on the web here:

http://www.lehigh.edu/~jahb/herbs/medievalgardens.htm

-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net

Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 13:30:50 -0500 (EST)

From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] medieval gardens

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Take a look through the PLANTS, HERBS AND SPICES section of the

> Florilegium. There are several articles there on medieval gardens and on

> growing your own. Of all sizes, from monstrously large to ones for

> apartments, although unless you are doing the minature tree thing, I

> guess pattern gardens are not to practical for apartments or suburban

> homes.

*grin* I just finished reading a new book, and I've got lots of exciting

ideas for garden-like thingies at events-- carved heraldic beasts on

poles, dug out sections filled with gravel, sand or brick dust to make

partierres, plants in pots, wooden cases held together with hinges and

filled with dirt to make turf seats.... :)

> Come to think of it, one, at least, is laid out in the geometric pattern

> that you (?) said earlier was more modern...

> <<<<

> If I remember right, the geometric pattern is post-medieval but still

> was done prior to 1600. I think Akim's article above details some of

> this.

Formal patterns, both simple (usually heraldic) partierres and

checkerboards/windowpane check patterns are certainly documented to

period. It's the pattern with a central circular feature, surrounded by

square beds with the interior corners cut off, or pie-piece or

triangular shaped beds, that doesn't seem to be attested. :)

>>>>>

> What about the espaliered apple tree?

> <<<<

> What is an "espaliered" apple tree? Sounds like you are doing

> something terrible to that apple tree...

An espaliered fruit true has been pruned to have branches only in one

vertical plane, and fastened to a wall. Espaliering does several things--

first, depending on the make of the wall and what direction it faces, it

can extend the season for the fruit-- trees on north facing walls will

ripen later, on south facing walls, earlier.

Susan Campbell's _Charleston Kedding: a history of kitchen gardening_

suggests that espaliers came to England with the Huegenots before 1600.

This indicates that espalier training was probably known within our

period, but possibly not until very late in our period...

-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net

Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 20:05:25 -0600

From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] medieval gardens

To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> What is an "espaliered" apple tree? Sounds like you are doing something

> terrible to that apple tree...

> Stefan

It means to grow a tree or a shrub in a flat plane against a wall.

Espaliers are often symmetrical. Think flat bonsai.

Bear

From: "Uwe M¸ller" <uwemueller at go4more.de>

Newsgroups: soc.history.medieval

Subject: Medieval Gardens

Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 09:06:42 +0200

In the medieval western Baltic and Scandinavia the origins of the town house

are agraric. Up to the 12th c. lay-out of buildings on the plots resembled

that of farmsteads including stables and barns. People were self supporting

at the time, raising vegetables and herbs, in Lubeck for instance merchants

houses were developed out of farm houses with added storage areas beneath

the roof(to shorten a more complicated story).

One of the features of the farm still present was the garden, even though

food production seems to have decreased considerably after ca. 1200 making

way for an increase in flowers and a recreational use.

In general this development can be seen as well along the northsea coast and

in Britain.

There should be some kind of linkage between the emergence of market

economies and the decrease of food production on the plots, you don't need

to grow what you can buy. So gardens should appear together with currencies

for everyday use, daily markets, etc.

Others see the influence from the muslims gardens as greater, together with

other comforts of a civilized lifestyle returning crusaders would have

brought gardening to the north.

While there is lots of data on gardens in the 14th and 15th c. I know little

about gardening in the 13th (or 12th). There are of course monastic gardens,

the plan of St. Gallen being an early example. But what happened in the many

towns? And does anyone know about french gardening in towns at that time?

references:

A.E. Brown (Ed.), Garden Archaeology, Papers presented to a conference at

Knuston Hall, Northhamptonshire, April 1988, Council for British

Archaeology, CBA Research Report 78,1991,

Marianne Dumitrache, Katia Kliemann, Gabriele Legant-Karau, Monika

Remann,Manfred Schneider und Markus Sommer, Zwischenbericht über die

Grossgrabung Alfstraße-Fischstraße-Schüsselbuden im Lübecker Altstadtkern

1985/1986, in: Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 17, 1987, 529- 536

Günter P. Fehring Städtischer Hausbau in Norddeutschland von 1150-1250, in:

Heiko Steuer (Ed.), Zur Lebensweise in der Stadt um 1200. Ergebnisse der

Mittelalterarchäologie. Zeitschrift für Archäologie des Mittelalters,

Beiheft 4, 1986 43-61

Hausbau in Lübeck. Jahrbuch für Hausforschung 35,1986,

Herrmann Hinz, Ländlicher Hausbau in Skandinavien vom 6. bis 14.

Jahrhundert: Stova- Eldhus- Bur., Zeitschrift für Archäologie des

Mittelalters, Beiheft 5, 1989

thanks for the help

have fun

Uwe Mueller

From: "Curt Emanuel" <cemanuel at familyonline.com>

Newsgroups: soc.history.medieval

Subject: Re: Medieval Gardens

Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 12:21:10 -0400

"Uwe Müller" <uwemueller at go4more.de> wrote:

> In the medieval western Baltic and Scandinavia the origins of the town house

> are agraric. Up to the 12th c. lay-out of buildings on the plots resembled

> that of farmsteads including stables and barns. People were self supporting

> at the time, raising vegetables and herbs, in Lubeck for instance merchants

> houses were developed out of farm houses with added storage areas beneath

> the roof(to shorten a more complicated story).

> One of the features of the farm still present was the garden, even though

> food production seems to have decreased considerably after ca. 1200 making

> way for an increase in flowers and a recreational use.

> In general this development can be seen as well along the northsea coast

> and in Britain.

> There should be some kind of linkage between the emergence of market

> economies and the decrease of food production on the plots, you don't need

> to grow what you can buy. So gardens should appear together with

> currencies for everyday use, daily markets, etc.

> Others see the influence from the muslims gardens as greater, together with

> other comforts of a civilized lifestyle returning crusaders would have

> brought gardening to the north.

> While there is lots of data on gardens in the 14th and 15th c. I know little

> about gardening in the 13th (or 12th). There are of course monastic gardens,

> the plan of St. Gallen being an early example. But what happened in the many

> towns? And does anyone know about french gardening in towns at that time?

As you say, there's little about gardens from that period - most of what

I've seen are inferences from what peasant diets consisted of.

Neckham, writing in probably the late 12th century from Paris discusses what

should be found in a garden. Rather than quote the entire passage I'll list:

Rose and Lilies as ornamentation, parsley, costus, fennel, southernwood,

coriander, sage, savory, hyssop, mint, rue, dittany, celery, pyrethrum,

lettuce, cress, peonies, onions, leeks, garlic, pumpkins, shallots,

cucumbers, beets, dog's mercury, orach, sorrel, mallows, anise, mustard,

white pepper, absinthe, poppy, daffodils, acanthus, as well as many

medicinal herbs. pp105-06

from, _Daily Living in the Twelfth Century: Based on the Observations of

Alexander Neckham in London and Paris_, Urban Tigner Holmes, ISBN:

0-299-00854-1

He also discusses what should be found in a noble garden in addition to the

above.

Curt Emanuel

Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 13:04:15 -0700

From: Lilinah <lilinah at earthlink.net>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Fwd: Medieval plant database

To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Passing this along, since it sounds like something folks here would

be interested in...

> To: SCA-AuthenticCooks at yahoogroups.com

> From: "Marian" <marian at buttery.org>

> Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 16:39:31 -0000

> Subject: AuthenticCooks Medieval plant database

> Good morrow to all.

> Well, it is finally up and running!

> Please visit my database of Medieval garden plants at:

> http://www.buttery.org/marian/Garden_Welcome.html

> <http://www.buttery.org/marian/Garden_Welcome.html>;

> This database contains 260 herbs, fruits, vines, trees and shrubs named

> in Medieval garden lists by authors from the 9th through the 16th

> centuries (plus Palladius, since he was much translated and

> consulted in our period).

> The database provides common and Latin names, descriptions (both period

> and modern), and pictures; it notes uses for scent, cookery, dyes,

> medicine, and other purposes.

> I used Filemaker Pro because of its incredible search capabilities, but

> if you are not familiar with the program, please see my Helpful Notes

> page for an introduction.

> As an example of the search function, suppose you are only interested in

> gardens described by ANY German author:

> (1) Click the magnifying glass icon to go into Find Mode; (2) choose YES

> for Walafrid Strabo; (3) click PERFORM FIND (the results will show 32

> plants, which you can browse by clicking on the pages of the open book

> icon -- right page browses forward, left page browses backward).

> Go into Find Mode again and choose YES for Hildegard von Bingen. Instead

> of Perform Find, click EXTEND FOUND SET (the results now number 129

> for the combined search).

> Repeat these steps (find, chose, extend) choosing YES for Albertus

> Magnus and get a total of 196 records.

> On the other hand, if you want to see only those plants mentioned by

> ALL German authors:

> Go into Find Mode; choose YES for Walafrid, Hildegard, and Albertus;

> click Perform Find; you'll see the only 22 plants mentioned by all three.

> How would you know these were the German authors? Start by clicking on

> the gold button for MORE ABOUT THESE LISTS.

> I hope you find it useful, but I would appreciate any and all

> feedback.

> Thanks,

> --Old Marian

Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 08:45:19 -0400

From: Melanie Wilson <MelanieWilson at compuserve.com>

To: LIST SCA arts <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>

Subject: Books on eBay Gardening & Cookery

A History of British Gardening by Miles Hadfield

This is a book documenting the genius of British gardening, starting with

the Roman & Norman influence it then, it brings to life the almost mythical

Edens of the Tudors, the knot gardens, the parterres of the Jacobeans, the

landskips of the Georgians, describes the Picturesque and the Gardensque

styles. Victorian achievements are also well covered. Many b&w photos & line

drawings. HB ex-lib VG/VG

Mel

Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 16:07:33 -0500 (CDT)

From: Katy Lustofin <lustofin at life.uiuc.edu>

To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu

Subject: Re: Old world Fruit

Oddly enough, I was doing a literature search for school, completely

unrelated to this discussion and found the following citation. I have no

idea how easy the journal is to locate, but the article sounds pretty

interesting.

Keina

TI: Food, medicinal and other plants from the 15th century drains of

Paisley Abbey, Scotland.

AU: Dickson-C

SO: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 5(1-2): 25-31.

PY: 1996

AB: Plant remains from the 15th century drains at Paisley Abbey, Scotland

include medicinal plants which may have grown in the abbey's physic

garden.

They are Chelidonium majus, Conium maculatum, Euphorbia lathyris,

and Papaver somniferum. Plants with both medicinal and culinary uses are

Rumex pseudoalpinus and cf Armoracia rusticana. Other vegetables are

represented by Allium sp. and Brassica spp. Malus domestica and Prunus

domestica ssp. insititia would have been grown in the abbey's

orchard. Juglans regia, represented by nut and wood fragments, was either

grown in the orchard or imported. Ficus carica was certainly imported as

dried fruit from the Mediterranean region. Myristica fragrans as mace came

from Indonesia. Locally grown plants are Avena strigosa, Hordeum,

Triticum/Secale, Linum usitatissimum and the dye plant Reseda luteola. It

is known that spices and other foodstuffs were purchased at fairs at

Berry, Bruges and Antwerp and imported into Scotland at the end of the

15th century.

Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:53:57 -0400

From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>

Subject: [Sca-cooks] Medieval Garden Enclosed

To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Those that garden or like medieval botany might like this gardening blog

The Medieval Garden Enclosed

which is

"a blog dedicated to the plants and gardens of The Cloisters, a branch

of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Enter and explore the role of plants

and gardens in medieval life and art, learn how to find and grow

medieval herbs and flowers, discuss the long histories of many familiar

garden plants, discover which roadside weeds were once valued

medicinals, and encounter legendary plants like the mandrake

(/Mandragora officinarum/.)"

http://blog.metmuseum.org/cloistersgardens/

Johnnae

To: gleannabhann at yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: Medieval Gardens

Posted by: "Catherine Koehler" hccartck at yahoo.com hccartck

Date: Thu Aug 4, 2011 3:00 am ((PDT))

The Center for Medieval Studies at the University of Pennsylvania would be a wonderful source. They researched flowers, herbs, foods, etc. from the period and created numerous gardens. I used their web site for much of the information I got as well as a few of the Complete Anachronists. Truthfully, the info from Penn State was much more usable.

Aine

Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2015 21:39:14 -0400

From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>

To: Donna Green <donnaegreen at yahoo.com>, Cooks within the SCA

<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Gardening for Medieval Table

Those interested in gardening might like the blog posted here:

Cloisters

http://blog.metmuseum.org/cloistersgardens/

http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/visit-the-cloisters/in-season

Penn State medieval garden

http://www.psumedievalgarden.com/search.html

Johnnae

Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2015 16:01:33 -0400

From: Garth Groff via Atlantia <atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org>

To: Merry Rose <atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org>

Subject: [MR] Wikipedia: Garden Hermits

I just ran across this Wikipedia article by accident, and thought it was

too cool to pass up. Employing garden hermits began in the late 15th

century with the French king Charles VIII, and reached their peak of

popularity in England during the 18th century (I know of one from the

19th century who after his death was replaced by a simple mechanical

man). Garden hermits were either real hermits who were given quarters in

fashionably rustic gardens of the wealthy, or were hired "imitation"

hermits given room, board and a stipend for hanging around and looking

picturesque when guests showed up. Is this crazy, or what? The English

have long been known for their "follies"--fake rustic ruins and other

odd garden structures, and a live hermit must have been the ultimate

folly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_hermit .

Do visit this page. It is a hoot!

Lord Mungo Napier, Who Has Unwelcome Deer Instead of a Garden Hermit