The Green Middle Ages: The Depiction and Use of Plants in the Western World 600-1600

How ‘green’ Were People In Late Antiquity And The Middle Ages? Unlike Today, The Nature Around Them Was Approached With Faith, Trust And Care. The Population Size Was Many Times Smaller Than Today And Human Impact On Nature Not As Extreme As It Is Now. People Did Not Have To Worry About Issues Like Deforestation And Sustainability. This Book Is About The Knowledge Of Plants And Where That Knowledge Came From. How Did People Use Earth And Plants In Ancient Times, And What Did They Know About Their Nutritional Or Medicinal Properties? From Which Plants One Could Make Dyes, Such As Indigo, Woad And Dyer’s Madder? Is It Possible To Determine That Through Technical Research Today? Which Plants Could Be Found In A Ninth-century Monastery Garden, And What Is The Symbolic Significance Of Plants In Secular And Religious Literature? The Green Middle Ages Addresses These And Other Issues, Including The Earliest Herbarium Collections, With A Leading Role For The Palaeography And Beautiful Illuminations From Numerous Medieval Manuscripts Kept In Dutch And Other Western Libraries And Museums. Frontmatter -- Table Of Contents -- Preface -- Part I Chronological Developments: From Herbarium Pictum To Herbarium Vivum -- Introduction. Early Writings On Beneficial Plants: Perceptions And Prescriptions. The Web Of Written And Illustrated Plant Books From Antiquity To The Invention Of The Printing Press -- 1 From Copy To Copy 1500 Years Of Plant Illustration: The Manuscript Tradition -- 2 Early Printed Herbaria A Brief Outline Based On The Examples From The Liberna Collection -- 3 ‘everlasting Gardens’ Origin, Purpose, Spread And Use Of The First Herbaria -- Part Ii The Use Of Plants In The Middle Ages -- 4 Painting With Plants The Use Of Vegetal Paints In Medieval Manuscripts -- 5 Naming Names Plants In The Age Of Charlemagne -- 6 The Long Shadow Of Antiquity Medicine And Plants -- 7 ‘the Cook Is The Best Doctor’ Plants For Food And Health: Recipes And Prescriptions -- Part Iii Plants In Medieval Literature -- 8 ‘and It Grew And Waxed A Great Tree’ A Short Survey Of Plants In The Bible -- 9 Good Trees, Bad Trees Biblical Tree And Plant Symbolism In The Liber Floridus -- 10 The Herbal Book In Jacob Van Maerlant’s Der Naturen Bloeme -- 11 Plants In Medieval Literature A Thorny Rose Bush And Other Greenery Love, Lust And Suffering In The Romance Of The Rose -- Part Iv Plants In Medieval Book Decoration -- 12 Naming The Flowers And Plants In The Margins Of Late Medieval Manuscripts -- 13 Flowering Margins The Development Of Strewn-flower Borders In Southern Netherlandish Manuscript Illumination -- 14 Flowers Of Meaning The Interpretation Of Marginal Decoration In Southern Netherlandish Manuscripts From Around 1500 -- Appendix -- Appendix I: A Hand-written Text From Late Antiquity In The Leiden University Library. The Wonders Of Plantain In Apuleius Platonicus’ Herbarium (leiden, Ub Ms Vlq 9) -- Appendix Ii: A Late Medieval Printed Text In The Athenaeum Library In Deventer. Recipes In A Herb Book From 1497, The Ortus Sanitatis (deventer, Ab 2000 E 45 Kl) -- List Of Illustrations -- Abbreviations -- Selected Bibliography -- Index Of Manuscripts Cited And Early Printed Books -- Index Of Individuals (authors, Patrons, Makers And Owners Of Herbaria, Artists, Printers) Titles (books, Manuscripts, Herbaria) And Plants In Christian Iconography -- Index Of English Plant Names -- Latin Names For Medieval Plant Names -- Index Of Latin Plant Names -- Index Of Medieval Latin And Greek Plant Names (italics) And (old) Dutch (d.), German (g.) And French (fr.) Names (roman) -- Colophon Ed. By Claudine Chavannes-mazel, Linda Ijpelaar. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. In English.