Flowers & Plants

A review of the archaeological evidence for food plants from the British Isles.

An online exhibit, featuring the gardens of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome.

The aim of the Survey is to study the plant-name s of Anglo-Saxo n England, in whatever medium they survive (e.g. manuscript s, inscriptio ns etc.), and from whatever language they originate.

The development of the garden in the Middle Ages (focusing especially on German gardens), and different types and functions of gardens.

Asnapium: An Inventory of One of Charlemagne's Estates, c. 800 from the Medieval Sourcebook. Examples of included items are: bed clothes, kitchen ware, farm implements, measures of dry goods and harvests, cattle and fowl, specific garden herb and trees.

A calendar of the seasons for some of the plants, flowers, and fruits in 16th century London.

In the Middle Ages, physicians , cooks, and housewives knew that herbs and plants had a variety of uses for keeping people healthy and the home clean. Listed here are a number of plants we know were cultivated for food, medicine, and other helpful applicatio ns.

An 1893 partial modernized translatio n of 'De Proprietat ibus rerum' by Bartholome w Anglicus.

An ongoing site with articles and links on Herbalism as it applies to the Middle Ages and the SCA.

Botanical classification throughout the Middle Ages suffered from apocryphal sources and inconsistent terminology. Different texts mixed names and plants, borrowing from different languages to form an excessive range of unrelated synonyms. Most confusingly, however, they would source uncritically from Classical texts; Medieval scribes not only translated some of the ancients' own errors, but in some cases even aggravated them. As a result, the best methods for understanding the nature of plant names in Old and Middle English comes not from taxonomical research, but linguistic research.

Links to related articles.

An introducti on to medieval plants and gardening practices by way of the gardens of The Cloisters.