Nearly 300 accurate botanical illustrations, selected from a rare reference, include detailed renderings of woodbine, peony root, cherry, hare's beard, couch grass, and scores of other examples. Easy-to-use royalty-free images will add an authentic medieval touch to catalogs, brochures, and other projects calling for horticulture-related graphics. 294 black-and-white illustrations.

Outstanding collection of over 400 designs and illustrations, selected from authentic sources of medieval and Gothic ornamentation, includes woodcuts of human figures and walled cities, images of fanciful beasts and creatures of the sea and air, drawings of turreted castles, knights in armor, and much more.

Rich royalty-free collection reprinted from rare reference work includes detailed renderings of borage, oak-apple, valerian, thistle, tansy, many other plant varieties.

In our modern world, the spiny-stemmed flowers, intertwined leaves, and delicate pink blossoms of the rubus fruticosus, or common blackberry bramble, might catch the eye of the casual observer or weekend gardener. Pleasant, prolific, and decorative, plants like the blackberry are looked upon as sources for harvest, landscape, and visual pleasure. To the medieval and Renaissance artist, however, these botanicals were far more. Part of a richly symbolic visual language culled from the classical era, their exquisite depiction in illuminated manuscripts of the age evoked fertility, conjured bad dreams, and even aligned itself with ancient wisdom. The popular and enduring appeal of flowers in medieval art and literature extended beyond simple botanical illustration; instead, flowers helped to tell countless stories without words through potent symbolic imagery. The Medieval Flower Book artfully presents an alphabetical collection of over one hundred of the major flowers that appear in medieval manuscripts--gathered with fascinating explanatory texts on their history, significance, and usage. The sumptuous reproductions that accompany each entry offer a visual reference to the symbolism of botanicals in medieval manuscripts that's beyond breathtaking in its appeal. An introductory section explaining the ancient roots of practical horticulture's expansion into cultural and spiritual realms not only places the volume in the context of gardening history, but gives the general reader insight into our enduring interest in these remarkable herbals. Widely appealing to all of those interested in flowers and gardening, the horticultural historian, and the student of visual culture and medieval history, The Medieval Flower Book is a fascinating and important primer on the beauty and language of florals. Extensively ranging through the canon of medieval botanicals--from acanthus and anemones to violets and wallflowers--this volume is the perfect gift for anyone interested in blossoms and blooms, and should thrill the everyday gardener and art collector alike.

Collins shows how the principal herbal traditions of Classical descent were replaced by a new observation of nature that itself paved the way for the magnificent paintings of later French and Italian herbals.

Illustrated survey of gardening lore from the Norman Conquest to the Renaissance reveals wealth of ancient secrets drawn from obscure sources, chronicling cultivation of pleasure gardens as well as herbariums, orchards, and vineyards.