De cultura hortorum (Hortulus)

Walahfrid's Hortulus is currently the best-known poem of the Carolingian period. The Reichenau monk and sometime Aachen court poet Walahfrid Strabo (+ 849) describes 23 garden plants, from sage to rose, in 444 verses. In Walahfrid's skilful hexameters, which appear in the original Latin and in German translation, the form, colour, fragrance, yield, taste and medicinal value of the plants are described with varying emphasis. The new edition is based on six manuscripts, two of which have been used for the first time in an edition. Five of the manuscripts are glossed, the oldest layer of these glosses is critically edited in a separate apparatus.