This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: academic research engines

Title: Re: [GWL] academic research engines
on 9/11/03 2:23 PM, Duane Campbell at dcamp911@juno.com wrote:


> Secondary is fine.  The specific problem that I encountered yesterday
> was concerning Charlemagne.    I have a list of 72 plants that he
> apparently required people to grow.  The list is in a small book that I
> picked up last yr that was written in german and translated to english.

The published list you refer to is the Capitulare de villis (Decree concerning towns) promulgated by Charlemagne about 800.  The list includes 73 herbs and 16 trees and fruits for a total of 89 plants.  John Harvey, in his Medieval Gardens (London: Batsford, 1981) discusses this document and its context in detail (pp. 27-32) and publishes and comments on the entire list. Harvey's book is the most comprehensive treatment of medieval gardens, with an extensive bibliography, notes, plant lists, and other appendices.

> I though I was the only person in the world whose two interests were
> gardening and early medieval history.

Sorry to disillusion you, Duane, but you are not quite as unique as you might think.  I am delighted to learn of a fellow traveler.

> There was an 8th century monk named Walahfrid who wrote a book on
> gardening. I have long since lost my notes, but fortunately it is
> referred to in The Plan of St. Gall. Walahfrid Strabo, "Hortulus", Oayne
> and Blunt, editors, 1966. The cite does not give the publisher, but I'm
> pretty sure it was published by the horticulture library at Melon
> University in Pittsburg. I have tried for years to find a copy, but
> without success.

I have a copy of this book.  It is Hortulus by Walafrid Strabo, translated by Raef Payne, commentary by Wilfrid Blunt.   (Pittsburgh: The Hunt Botanical Library, 1966; xi + 91 pp.).  The book includes a photographic facsimile of the St. Gall manuscript of Strabo (Vatican Codex 469, leaves 29-39) plus a transcription and a translation on the facing pages.  It also includes a bibliography of all the known editions of the Hortulus.
> Another source would be the Plan of St. Gall. This was slightly after
> Charlemagne, about 830. The actual book would crush your copy table, but
> I have a shorter version, still pretty big. It has a plan of part of the
> vegetable garden with the crops grown identified. (Would you like me to
> send you the list? Email me off list. The complete book may have more.
> There is a reference to an article by Wolfgang Sorrensen in Studien,
> 1962, about the gardens of St. Gall. No other information given.

This "shorter version" is The Plan of St. Gall in Brief, an overview of the three-volume work by Walter Horn and Ernest Brown, by Lorna Price (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Los Angeles Press, 1982).  The " coffeetable-collapsing" original three-volume work is The Plant of St. Gall (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California, 1979).  Besides the plan of the monastery and archaeological drawings of the reconstructed buildings, it includes a discussion of the monks' orchard and garden and the gardener's house.

If you want to get into the literary sources that influenced the gardens, I strongly recommend Landscapes and Seasons of the Medieval World by Derek Pearsall and Elizabeth Salter (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1973).  It also includes some beautiful reproductions of illustrations from medieval manuscripts.

For England, try Medieval English Gardens, by Teresa McLean (New York: Viking Press, 1980).

And if you want a huge compendium of images of medieval gardens (alas, all in black and white), look up a copy ofthe two-volume Medieval Gardens by Sir Frank Crisp (London: John Lane; New York: Brentano's, [1924]; reprinted New York: Hacker Art Books, 1966).

Over the years, there have been a number of scholarly articles on medieval gardens in Garden History and the Journal of Garden History, several by John Harvey.  If you want to get into this, you may need to travel to a research library at one of the major universities.  Good luck!

John MacGregor
South Pasadena, CA 91030
USDA zone 9   Sunset zones 21/23
_______________________________________________
gardenwriters mailing list
gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/gardenwriters

GWL has searchable archives at:
http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters

Send photos for GWL to gwlphotos@hort.net to be posted
at: http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos

Post gardening questions/threads to
"Organic-Gardening" <organic-gardening@lists.ibiblio.org>

For GWL website and Wiki, go to
http://www.ibiblio.org/gardenwriters
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index