gardens-msg - 12/1/18

Medieval gardens. flowers. Books.

NOTE: See also the files: gardening-bib, gardening-bks-bib, A-Med-Garden-art, Herbs-Sm-Grdn-art, Pattrn-Gardns-art, Palladius-art, p-agriculture-bib, forestry-msg, p-herbals-msg, seeds-msg, roses-art.

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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

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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

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	gardens-msg	Page 2 of 15