Byzantine Garden Culture

Byzantine Garden Culture

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.

Presents the revised versions of papers delivered at a colloquium of the same name held at Dumbarton Oaks in November 1996. The volume's 11 chapters cover such topics as scholarship on Byzantine gardens; Theodore Hyrtakenos' Description of the Garden of St. Anna and the Ekphrasis of gardens; and herbs in the field and garden in Byzantine medicinal pharmacy.