Health and Healing from the Medieval Garden

by Peter J. Dendle (Editor), Alain Touwaide (Editor)

The important and ever-shifting role of medicinal plants in medieval science, art, culture, and thought, both in the Latin Western medical tradition and in Byzantine and medieval Arabic medicine, is the focus of this new collection. Following a general introduction and a background chapter on Late Antique and medieval theories of wellness and therapy, in-depth essays treat such wide-ranging topics as medicine and astrology, charms and magical remedies, herbal glossaries, illuminated medical manuscripts, women's reproductive medicine, dietary cooking, gardens in social and political context, and recreated medieval gardens. They make a significant contribution to our understanding of the place of medicinal plants in medieval thought and practice, and thus lead to a greater appreciation of how medieval theories and therapies from diverse places developed in continuously evolving and cross-pollinating strands, and, in turn, how they contributed to broader ideas concerning the body, religion, identity, and the human relationship with the natural world. ALAIN TOUWAIDE, LINDA EHRSAM VOIGTS, PETER DENDLE, TERENCE SCULLY, MARIA AMALIA D'ARONCO, PHILIP G. RUSCHE, MARIJANE OSBORN, PETER MURRAY JONES, GEORGE R. KEISER, EXPIRACION GARCIA SANCHEZ, DEIRDRE LARKIN

Table of Contents

The Legacy of Classical Antiquity in Byzantium and the West - Alain TouwaidePlants and Linking the Vegetable with the Celestial in Late- Medieval Texts - Linda Ehrsam VoigtsPlants in the Early Medieval Herbs, Divine Potency, and the Scala natura - Peter DendleA Cook's Therapeutic Use of Garden Herbs - Terence ScullyThe Jujube-Tree in the Eastern A Case Study in the Methodolo gy of Textual Archaobotany - Alain TouwaideGardens on Plants and Herbs in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts - Maria D'AroncoThe Sources for Plant Names in Anglo-Saxon England and the Laud Herbal Glossary - Philip RuscheAnglo-Saxon Women's Reproductive medicine in Leechbook III - Marijane OsbornHerbs and the Medieval Surgeon - Peter Murray Not Just for Rememberance - George R. KeiserUtility and Aesthetics in the Gardens of Species with Multiple Uses - Expiración García SánchezHortus The Medieval Garden Recreated - Deirdre Larkin

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Medicine

270 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Dr. Peter Jonathan Dendle is Assistant Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University, Mont Alto.