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The Medieval Church · c. 840
The Little Garden
Hortulus
Walafrid Strabo · c. 808–849
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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
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
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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