Analysing the Boundaries of the Ancient Roman Garden

(Re)Framing the Hortus

Dr Victoria Austen (University of Winnipeg, USA), Anna Collar, Esther Eidinow (University of Bristol UK) , Katharina Lorenz (University of Giessen Germany)

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English

Bloomsbury Academic
19 September 2024

Environmental archaeology; Gardening

Series: Ancient Environments

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.

By: Dr Victoria Austen (University of Winnipeg USA)
Edited by: Anna Collar, Esther Eidinow (University of Bristol UK), Katharina Lorenz (University of Giessen Germany)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781350265226
ISBN 10: 1350265225
Series: Ancient Environments
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 19 September 2024
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Victoria Austen is Assistant Professor at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA. She received her PhD in Classics from King’s College London, UK.

Reviews for Analysing the Boundaries of the Ancient Roman Garden: (Re)Framing the Hortus

[T]he book introduces new avenues to explore, and Austen has an engaging voice that blends an inventive point of view with critical acuity... Austen’s work will be useful for scholars and students interested in garden spaces and theoretical approaches to that space. Intermedial approaches can be difficult to tackle, because one must master a large amount of material, and this is apparent at moments in Austen’s case studies, but her book will inspire the reader to view Roman gardens with more curiosity and care. * The Classical Outlook * Victoria Austen presents an intriguing analysis of ‘the boundaries of the ancient Roman garden’, in a thought-provoking study in which she brings texts into a productive dialogue with material and visual culture … This is a stimulating book that certainly invites more work along similar lines, showing the rich layers of meaning and perspectives that can be inherent in the interstitial space of the garden and in its boundaries -- Anke Walter, University of Newcastle, UK * Greece and Rome *