The Medieval Garden (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

How does one write about gardens that no longer exist? Landsberg, a garden historian and lecturer who has designed several 13th to 16th century-style gardens, re-creates medieval gardens by analyzing contemporary manuscripts and art, the results of recent archaeological studies, and the few remaining fragments of gardens and surviving horticultural practices from that period. She includes dozens of reproductions of medieval illuminated manuscripts, paintings, etchings, and woodcuts to illustrate gardens from the time of Charlemagne to the beginning of Renaissance gardens in England. These are fleshed out with hypothetical plans and diagrams pieced together from documentary sources, poetry, and texts on cookery, medicine, and social life. The lists of plants included in the gardens are deduced from the visual evidence but are mainly taken from the work of John Harvey (e.g., Medieval Gardens, 1982) who unambiguously equated almost every medieval plant name with plants still available. The last third of the book discusses re-creating medieval gardens and provides a list of gardens to visit, some of them designed by the author. Recommended for all gardening history collections.?Daniel Starr, Museum of Modern Art Lib., New York
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

The medieval garden offered pleasure, reopse, and refreshmen to the senses. In this delightful new book, garden historian and lecturer Sylvia Landsberg uses manuscript descriptions and other sources to paint a piture of the many different kinds of gardens that existed in medieval times, from the small, enclosed herber with its plant borders to the vast cultivated parks of the royalty and nobility. 85 illustrations, 35 in color.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson (May 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500016917
• ISBN-13: 978-0500016916
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,138,378 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good general work on subject; excellent bibliography., April 6, 1999

By	Zachary Smith ([e-mail]) (Puget sound region of Washington state, USA) - See all my reviews

This book is the best single source that I have found on medieval gardening. The emphasis is on Britain and the low countries from the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries. Gardens at all social levels are covered, from peasant to townhouse, cloister to royalty. Illustrations are not lavish but sufficient and are all well identified. Many architectural drawings are included. The chapter on recreated or reproduced medieval gardens is interesting, particluarly as the author shares her insights from working on some of them. I found the chapter on incorporating medieval recreations into modern home gardens to be less useful unless one has not been exposed to such information before.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent general knowledge source, May 23, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Medieval Garden (Paperback)

This book covers the medieval gardens from their origins in Roman times up to the beginning of the Renaissance. It is mostly oriented towards English gardens. It covers everything from the large pleasure gardens and parks of the aristocracy to the backyard plots of the peasants and the hospital gardens of monasteries. There is enough information to give a good overview, sufficient for most people's needs I think, and it is neatly illustrated throughout. References are given for each section, and the reader is directed to more sources of information if they desire in-depth research.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic garden book, April 2, 2007

By	Mary Bellis Waller - See all my reviews

Sylvia Landsberg is a noted garden designer and researcher on gardens through the ages. Her speciality is medieval gardens and this is a masterpiece. If you have any interest in historical gardens, get this book.