Designs Upon the Land

Elite Landscapes of the Middle Ages

Dados Bibliográficos

ID9738560
AutoresJ A Green (University of Edinburgh, autor correspondente)
Ano2010
Volume125
Fascículo517
Páginas1497-1498
Data de publicação2010-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe English Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0013-8266 • E-ISSN: 1477-4534
EditoraOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/ehr/ceq328
OpenAlexW2171756716
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas17

Oliver Creighton has written a thought-provoking and timely overview of medieval élite landscapes, concentrating on England but also drawing on examples from all quarters of the British Isles and from the Continent. He is refreshingly frank about the problem of defining ‘design’ in relation to landscapes. It was a term unknown in the middle ages and, he writes, may be found contentious by those who believe that landscape was an innovation of the fifteenth century, with the development of linear perspective. He disarms his critics by admitting the uneven record of investigation in the field, the patchy nature of documentary evidence, and the necessity of allowing for the incorporation of earlier features in later reworking of medieval gardens and landscapes. Having duly alerted his readers to the challenging nature of the evidential basis, he nevertheless argues that élite landscapes in medieval England were deliberately designed, combining practical functions, aesthetic considerations, and the need to display wealth and status in a competitive world

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Elite · Field (mathematics · Fifteenth · Middle Ages · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Politics · Relation (database · Sociology · Visual arts · Computer Science · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History