ABSTRACT
Which garden plants grew in western Europe a thousand years ago and what names were given to them? By mere chance, a number of written sources from about the time of Charlemagne have survived in a small ninth century manuscript (Wolfenbüttel, HAB Cod.Guelf. 254). One is an ordinance, called a Capitulare de villis, which ends with a list of approximately eighty names of preferred plants and trees. Other pages contain inventories of the gardens and grounds of Asnapium and Treola. A second valuable source is the renowned plan of the monastery of St. Gall with its medicinal garden, vegetable garden and orchard cum cemetery, accompanied by the names of the plants and trees found in these plots. Lastly, there is the poem of Wahlafrid Strabo, Hortulus (842), in which he praises the 24 plants found in his monastic garden.
