DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16632#0224
The Middle Ages in the West
195
copperplate engraving (one of the very earliest known) which represents a Garden of Love
as in part an open pasture or perhaps a flowery meadow, in the middle of a park with a
brook running through it. The people sitting on the grass have railings to lean against,
and the centre piece is a hexagonal table with refreshments laid out (Fig. 145). There is
another table like it in the beautiful garden where the Queen of Heaven is sitting, deep
in her book, on a chair beside the table (Fig. 146), while high above at the back of her
are lovely lilies, roses, and irises; her attendants are happy in the garden, some with
wings and some without, playing with the child Jesus who sits on the flowery mead,
FIG. I44. THE GARDEN OF LOVE-FROM " TRIONFO DELLA MORTE"
or carrying fruits in woven baskets, or drawing water from a marble trough; others are
discussing philosophy. A high white battlemented wall hides the heavenly company from
profane eyes.
Another result of the close alliance with Eastern civilisation was the awakening of
the desire for knowledge in the Christian world. Moorish Spain was now friendly with
the lands of the North, because it had become customary for learned men to study
medicine and mathematics at the Spanish universities. A good knowledge of plants was
one of the first necessities for medicine, of course, and in the thirteenth century Albertus
Magnus was the true pioneer, with a scientific work on the kingdom of plants; and though
many fantastic errors are mixed in with some of the details, this study did lead him to the
original sources of learning in the East. He had moreover seen a great many things, and
observed them to good purpose, and had made all sorts of experiments in his own garden.
195
copperplate engraving (one of the very earliest known) which represents a Garden of Love
as in part an open pasture or perhaps a flowery meadow, in the middle of a park with a
brook running through it. The people sitting on the grass have railings to lean against,
and the centre piece is a hexagonal table with refreshments laid out (Fig. 145). There is
another table like it in the beautiful garden where the Queen of Heaven is sitting, deep
in her book, on a chair beside the table (Fig. 146), while high above at the back of her
are lovely lilies, roses, and irises; her attendants are happy in the garden, some with
wings and some without, playing with the child Jesus who sits on the flowery mead,
FIG. I44. THE GARDEN OF LOVE-FROM " TRIONFO DELLA MORTE"
or carrying fruits in woven baskets, or drawing water from a marble trough; others are
discussing philosophy. A high white battlemented wall hides the heavenly company from
profane eyes.
Another result of the close alliance with Eastern civilisation was the awakening of
the desire for knowledge in the Christian world. Moorish Spain was now friendly with
the lands of the North, because it had become customary for learned men to study
medicine and mathematics at the Spanish universities. A good knowledge of plants was
one of the first necessities for medicine, of course, and in the thirteenth century Albertus
Magnus was the true pioneer, with a scientific work on the kingdom of plants; and though
many fantastic errors are mixed in with some of the details, this study did lead him to the
original sources of learning in the East. He had moreover seen a great many things, and
observed them to good purpose, and had made all sorts of experiments in his own garden.