DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0202
i74
History of Garden Art
especially in the East. The idea spread in the West also, and the pineapple appears in the
front court of the minster at Aix. The spaces between the crossways that marked the
centre of the cloister were planted like the paradises of an earlier time, as at S. Paolo
fuori in Rome (Fig. 123).
In the eighth century Pope Hadrian had this place "most beautifully restored"; by
that time, as a fact, it was a complete ruin, and cattle and horses browsed contentedly on
the vegetables. These courts were not often planted as kitchen-gardens, perhaps only
when there was no larger place to turn to: more often they were used as churchyards,
generally full of trees and flower-beds, with a well — a place where the brothers
could meditate.
We often hear of their beauty at a later period. William Rufus once in his headstrong
fashion made his way into the abbey at Romsey, where Matilda (Henry's future wife)
was staying for a time, and the abbess, afraid the child might come to some harm, dressed
her in a nun's habit. The king stepped out into the cloister, as though he "only wanted
to admire the roses and the other flowering plants," and let the child go by unmolested
among the nuns. Still earlier, in the tenth century, a pious singer describes a cloister at
the monastery at Reichenau: "Before St. Mary's house on the far side of the threshold
is the garden, well-nursed, well-watered, and lovely. About it there are walls, boughs
swinging every way; it glows under the light, like an earthly Paradise."
From an early date the garden was not limited to the chief court. The founder of the
Benedictines, more than any man, inspired the cloister life of the sixth century in Western
Europe; and he at once ordered that "all the necessaries" for the support of monks should
be supplied within the walls, and among these "necessaries" water and gardens stood
in the first rank: of course these gardens were for herbs and vegetables. We can only
guess how far the establishments founded by St. Benedict himself, and especially the
mother-cloister, were able to comply with his demands. The mention of a tower, and a
portico, where St. Benedict lived with his pupils, makes us think of pictures of a Roman
villa; but in any case the Benedictines, whose rule enjoined work in the garden, were
the men who handed down the practice of horticulture right through the Middle Ages,
Those Orders which were not influenced by the Benedictine Rule, and forbade
the monks to do farm work, still seem to have thought a garden indispensable. The
Spaniard Isidorus in his Rule makes a special point of having a garden within the
cloister, attached to the wall and entered by the back door, so that the monks should
be able to work there and not have occasion to go outside. There was a certain tradition
in the old Roman provinces about the cultivation of the choicer kinds of fruit, and it is
hard to say how long it survived the storms of the Middle Ages, whether the monks
are to be connected with this tradition, or if they started afresh on their own account, as
is doubtless what did actually happen in the case of the German nations farther east.
It is well worth noting that in Norway even to this day none but the finest and choicest
fruit-trees are found on the site of an old monastery.
There is a very clear picture of a great monastery (according to the Rule of St.
Benedict) in the plan preserved at the library of St. Gall (Fig. 124). It was sent to
the abbot of St. Gall in the year 900 as a model plan. The whole design, which
really includes all the "necessaries" within its walls, falls into three divisions: first,
the church with the buildings for Regulars in the centre; secondly, on the north-east.
History of Garden Art
especially in the East. The idea spread in the West also, and the pineapple appears in the
front court of the minster at Aix. The spaces between the crossways that marked the
centre of the cloister were planted like the paradises of an earlier time, as at S. Paolo
fuori in Rome (Fig. 123).
In the eighth century Pope Hadrian had this place "most beautifully restored"; by
that time, as a fact, it was a complete ruin, and cattle and horses browsed contentedly on
the vegetables. These courts were not often planted as kitchen-gardens, perhaps only
when there was no larger place to turn to: more often they were used as churchyards,
generally full of trees and flower-beds, with a well — a place where the brothers
could meditate.
We often hear of their beauty at a later period. William Rufus once in his headstrong
fashion made his way into the abbey at Romsey, where Matilda (Henry's future wife)
was staying for a time, and the abbess, afraid the child might come to some harm, dressed
her in a nun's habit. The king stepped out into the cloister, as though he "only wanted
to admire the roses and the other flowering plants," and let the child go by unmolested
among the nuns. Still earlier, in the tenth century, a pious singer describes a cloister at
the monastery at Reichenau: "Before St. Mary's house on the far side of the threshold
is the garden, well-nursed, well-watered, and lovely. About it there are walls, boughs
swinging every way; it glows under the light, like an earthly Paradise."
From an early date the garden was not limited to the chief court. The founder of the
Benedictines, more than any man, inspired the cloister life of the sixth century in Western
Europe; and he at once ordered that "all the necessaries" for the support of monks should
be supplied within the walls, and among these "necessaries" water and gardens stood
in the first rank: of course these gardens were for herbs and vegetables. We can only
guess how far the establishments founded by St. Benedict himself, and especially the
mother-cloister, were able to comply with his demands. The mention of a tower, and a
portico, where St. Benedict lived with his pupils, makes us think of pictures of a Roman
villa; but in any case the Benedictines, whose rule enjoined work in the garden, were
the men who handed down the practice of horticulture right through the Middle Ages,
Those Orders which were not influenced by the Benedictine Rule, and forbade
the monks to do farm work, still seem to have thought a garden indispensable. The
Spaniard Isidorus in his Rule makes a special point of having a garden within the
cloister, attached to the wall and entered by the back door, so that the monks should
be able to work there and not have occasion to go outside. There was a certain tradition
in the old Roman provinces about the cultivation of the choicer kinds of fruit, and it is
hard to say how long it survived the storms of the Middle Ages, whether the monks
are to be connected with this tradition, or if they started afresh on their own account, as
is doubtless what did actually happen in the case of the German nations farther east.
It is well worth noting that in Norway even to this day none but the finest and choicest
fruit-trees are found on the site of an old monastery.
There is a very clear picture of a great monastery (according to the Rule of St.
Benedict) in the plan preserved at the library of St. Gall (Fig. 124). It was sent to
the abbot of St. Gall in the year 900 as a model plan. The whole design, which
really includes all the "necessaries" within its walls, falls into three divisions: first,
the church with the buildings for Regulars in the centre; secondly, on the north-east.