Hello!
This will be my final post for the semester. It’s been really fun sharing my
articles and books with you and I really hope we were all able to learn along
the way-I know I was! I realized I didn’t wrap up the discussion on Friar Henry
Daniel, so I wanted to tell you about that. Also, I will be staying with the
garden over the summer to get a website up and running! As you know, I’ve been
collecting information on plants in Loyola’s Heraldic garden for use on the
website. However, Loyola also has a labyrinth right by the garden, complete
with mythical and/or significant medieval beasts! These beasts will need to be
systematically researched and written up too. This work will probably be done by
another intern, so I thought I might use this opportunity to pass the torch on
to the next scholar working on our medieval garden.
This is a photo of part of our garden, taken by Charles Heinrich in September 2012.
First,
on Friar Daniel, I wasn’t able to find published copies of any of his works, as
I told you in a previous blog post. Dr. Gross-Diaz directed me to Jeannette
Pierce, an extremely helpful research specialist at Loyola’s library. She told
me that, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, Friar Daniel’s
works remain in manuscript form at the British Library, so there are no published copies. His works are
on plants, including 2 herbals and the treatise on rosemary, and a medical work
on “urinoscopy” that are at the Bodleian Library, Trinity College in Cambridge
and the British Library. He was skilled in medicine and gardening as well as
being a friar.[1]
The entry further says,
“The clinical book is dated to 1379,
when it was finished during the summer after three years of work, hindered by Daniel's obedience as a friar and by
serious illness. The herbal was evidently
begun soon afterwards and exists in two forms: a detailed but incomplete draft in BL, Arundel MS 42, rich in
personal asides; and the regularized but somewhat abridged final version of BL, Add. MS 27329. The latter is
divided into two parts, the first
covering herbs and the second trees, fruits, and animal and mineral substances
used in medicine.
What little is known of Daniel's
life is derived from autobiographical remarks in his works. They record that he had in his 'young years ...
worked seven years to learn', and had
possessed a garden at Stepney beside London, in which he grew 252 kinds of
herbs. By 1380 he must have reached a
considerable age and had over thirty years' experience of growing rosemary. He had detailed knowledge of
the region around Stamford and mentions
journeys in Wiltshire, to Bristol, and in Kent and East Anglia. Many accounts of plants in the herbal display a
remarkably deep interest in plant ecology and include some of the earliest records of individual species. He also
distinguished between wild and garden
plants and provided vernacular as well as Latin names.”[2]
Friar Daniel's herbal
I
don’t know if we can get Friar Daniel’s herbals in the near future: that may be
a good project for our next intern. I do know that I have greatly enjoyed the
herbals that I’ve found; Henry of Huntington’s Angelicus ortus and William Turner’s New Herball.
Another
possible pursuit of study would be the medieval beasts. I discovered the
unicorn as a significant beast for medieval peoples. The book The Unicorn Tapestries by Margaret B.
Freeman has wonderfully assembled an in-depth study of the symbolism woven
intricately into the series of tapestries that show a medieval unicorn hunt.
First of all, the unicorn held meaning for Christians specifically as appearing
in the Old Testament as a symbol of the Christ to come. This is seen in quotes taken
from the King James Version of the Bible: “…his horns are like the horns of a
unicorn.”[3] Philosophers
and great theologians of the early Church further developed the relationship
between the unicorn and Christ. Freeman says that, “by interpreting the unicorn
as a Christian symbol, early theologians made possible his acceptance by
learned Christians.”[4] Next
in literary history came the very popular Physiologus,
(forerunner of the Western European bestiary) which included real and “fanciful”
descriptions of medieval animals and beasts.[5]
The
story that is depicted in the tapestries is the one told in the Physiologus.[6] The
5th tapestry shows the unicorn tamed by a virgin maiden (meant to
represent that Christ came to earth through Mary), the 6th tapestry simultaneously
shows the unicorn being killed and captured and then brought to the castle of a nobleman and the 7th tapestry is titled “The Unicorn in Captivity,” where
he has come back to life, just as Christ did. Freeman tells us “thus the story
of the unicorn, in texts and in tapestries, may serve as an allegory for the
whole divine plan for the redemption of sinful man.”[7] In
addition to his appearance on the tapestries, unicorn horns were highly valued
in the Middle Ages.
The final unicorn tapestry at the Cloisters Museum at the Met
Well,
that’s all for this blog everyone! This internship has truly been a blessing
and a pleasure for me and I loved sharing it with you! I hope you’ve enjoyed
this blog too, and those of you near Chicago, please remember that we always
need volunteers for the Heraldic Garden at Loyola. Take care, and I’ll see you
at the garden!
Our beautiful medieval garden
[1]
Jeannette Pierce emailed me the entry from the Dictionary of National Biography,
written by the great John Harvey (he wrote the article, not the dictionary,
although with interests as diverse as Harvey’s I wouldn't be surprised.) Harvey
used these sources; C. H. Talbot and E. A. Hammond, The medical practitioners
in medieval England: a biographical register (1965) + J. Harvey, Medieval
gardens (1990), 118-19; 189-62 + J. H. Harvey, 'Henry Daniel: a scientific
gardener of the fourteenth century', Garden History, 15 (1987), 81-93
Archives BL, Arundel MS 42 + BL, Add. MS 27329 + BL, Royal MS 17 A.iii, fols. 13-17 + BL, Royal MS 17 D.i + Bodl. Oxf., MS Ashmole 1404 + Bodl. Oxf., MS Digby 29, fols. 295v-297 + Trinity Cam., MS O.1.13, fols. 77v-82v
Archives BL, Arundel MS 42 + BL, Add. MS 27329 + BL, Royal MS 17 A.iii, fols. 13-17 + BL, Royal MS 17 D.i + Bodl. Oxf., MS Ashmole 1404 + Bodl. Oxf., MS Digby 29, fols. 295v-297 + Trinity Cam., MS O.1.13, fols. 77v-82v
[2]
Ibid. (1)
[3]
Quoted from Deuteronomy 33:17 in Margaret B. Freeman “The Unicorn Tapestries”
(Lausanne; Helvetica Press Incorporated, 1976).
[4] Margaret
B. Freeman “The Unicorn Tapestries” (Lausanne; Helvetica Press Incorporated,
1976).
[5]
Ibid. (4)
[6]
Ibid. (4)
[7]
Ibid. (4)