Analysing the boundaries of the ancient Roman garden
Subtitle: (re)framing the Hortus
By: Victoria Austen
Edition: 1st ed.
Series: Ancient Environments
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 2023
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781350265219
Subjects: Classical history; Earth sciences; Ancient World; Archaeology
Description: This book demonstrates how the Romans constructed garden boundaries specifically in order to open up or undermine the division between a number of oppositions, such as inside/outside, sacred/profane, art/nature, and real/imagined. Using case studies from across literature and material and visual culture, Victoria Austen explores the perception of individual garden sites in response to their limits, and showcases how the Romans delighted in playing with concepts of boundedness and separation.     Transculturally, the garden is understood as a marked-off and cultivated space. Distinct from their surroundings, gardens are material and symbolic spaces that constitute both universal and culturally specific ways of accommodating the natural world and expressing human attitudes and values. Although we define these spaces explicitly through the notions of separation and division, in many cases we are unable to make sense of the most basic distinction between 'garden' and 'not-garden'. In response to this ambiguity, Austen interrogates the notion of the 'boundary' as an essential characteristic of the Roman garden..
Notes: Compliant with Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Content is displayed as HTML full text which can easily be resized or read with assistive technology, with mark-up that allows screen readers and keyboard-only users to navigate easily
Table of contents: title: List of Figures Acknowledgements  Introduction: Defining Garden Space   Chapter 1: Setting the Framework Chapter 2: Who has the time? Virgil, Columella, and Hortus Poetry Chapter 3: Augustus' Garden Room? Re-Framing the Ara Pacis Augustae Chapter 4: Distinguit et Miscet: Framing Roman Villa Gardens  Conclusion: Seneca's Thyestes and the Anti-Garden   Notes Bibliography Index.