Title & Author:

Byzantine garden culture / edited by Antony Littlewood, Henry Maguire, and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn.

Publication:

Description:

xvii, 260 pages : illustrations ; 27 cm

Notes:
Papers presented at a colloquium in November 1996 at Dumbarton Oaks.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-235) and indexes.
The study of Byzantine gardens: some questions and observations from a garden historian / Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn -- The scholarship of Byzantine gardens / Antony Littlewood -- Paradise withdrawn / Henry Maguire -- Byzantine monastic horticulture: the textual evidence / Alice-Mary Talbot -- Wild animals in the Byzantine park / Nancy P. Ševčenko -- Byzantine gardens and horticulture in the late Byzantine period, 1204-1453: the secular sources / Costas N. Constantinides -- Theodore Hyrtakenos' Description of the garden of St. Anna and the ekphrasis of gardens / Mary-Lyon Dolezal and Maria Mavroudi -- Kepopoia̐: garden making and garden culture in the geoponika / Robert Rodgers -- Herbs of the field and herbs of the garden in Byzantine medicinal pharmacy / John Scarborough -- The Vienna Dioskorides and Anicia Juliana / Leslie Brubaker -- Possible future directions / Antony Littlewood.

Summary:

Individual essays discuss Byzantine conceptions of paradise, the textual evidence for monastic horticulture, animal and game parks, herbs in medicinal pharmacy, and the famous illustrated copy of Dioskorides's herbal manual in Vienna. An opening chapter explores questions and observations from the point of view of a non-Byzantine garden historian, and the closing chapter suggests possible directions for future scholarship in the field.
Only in the last decade has much serious attention been paid to the Byzantine garden, so indirect is the mass of information, both in literature and the visual arts, that is available for scholars. Byzantine Garden Culture, which comprises the revised versions of papers delivered at a colloquium of the same title held at Dumbarton Oaks in November 1996, is the first book ever devoted to the subject. Individual chapters deal with Byzantine conceptions of paradise, the textual evidence for monastic horticulture, animal and game parks, Palaiologan gardens, Theodore Hyrtakenos's literary ekphrasis of a garden, the horticultural sections of the agricultural manual known as the Geoponika, herbs in medicinal pharmacy, and the famous illustrated copy of Dioskorides' herbal manual in Vienna. An opening chapter explores questions and observations from the point of view of a non-Byzantine garden historian, and the closing chapter suggests possible directions for future scholarship in the field. To increase the usefulness of this book, both the bibliography and a chapter on the scholarship of Byzantine gardens cover every aspect of the subject, and have been brought up to date to October 2001. An unusually thorough index is provided. Byzantine Garden Culture provides both garden historians and those interested in Byzantine civilization in general with information and insights into this neglected but fascinating area which, as is clear from their own innumerable allusions, was of paramount importance to the Byzantines themselves. -- Publisher's website.

Resources:
Table of contents

ISBN:

0884022803 (alk. paper)
9780884022800 (alk. paper)

Subject:

Gardens, Byzantine Byzantine Empire History Congresses.
Jardins byzantins Empire byzantin Histoire Congrès.
Civilization Congresses
Civilization
Gardens, Byzantine
Tuinarchitectuur.
Byzantijnse kunst.
Gardens, Byzantine Byzantine Empire History.
Byzantine Empire Civilization Congresses.
Empire byzantin Civilisation Congrès.
Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire Civilization.

Form/genre:

Proceedings.
Conference papers and proceedings
History

Added entries:

Littlewood, Antony Robert.
Maguire, Henry, 1943-
Wolschke-Bulmahn, Joachim.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 221986
Call No.: SB457.547 .B97 1996
Status: Available