THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS: MEDIEVAL GARDENS AND THEIR MEANINGS / THE PHYSIC GARDEN

The garden in medieval Europe was more than just a space where nature was cultivated and enjoyed. It was a cultural concept that existed as powerfully in the mind as it did in reality; a potent allegory for contemporary ideas about good and evil, filtered through a Christian consciousness. This course of 5 lectures explores the complex and sometimes contradictory range of meanings carried by the garden in medieval thinking. Sources are drawn from a wide range of medieval and early Renaissance imagery and include expressionistic Romanesque sculpture, exquisite illustrated manuscripts, glowing stained glass, sumptuous panel paintings and tapestries, backed up by references to contemporary music and poetry and a fledgling theatrical tradition.

THE PHYSIC GARDEN

Gardens developed within the closed confines of the monastery. They were originally practical spaces - vegetable plots, orchards and herbariums where plants were raised for culinary and medicinal needs; but they quickly became known for their restorative qualities too, as places of spiritual as well as physical healing. We turn the pages of illustrated botanical texts known as Herbals and wonder at what these early monastic physicians knew - and didn’t know – about curing disease.

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