The Medieval Church · c. 840
The Little Garden
Hortulus
Walafrid Strabo · c. 808–849
What it is
A poem on twenty-three plants in a monastery garden — sage, rue, melon, lily, rose — with their uses in medicine and their meanings.
Why it lasted
The earliest garden poem in European literature, and a charming record of what a ninth-century monastery actually grew.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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