On Iris, from Hortulus

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  • MaryRowe
    MaryRowe Posts: 736 ✭✭✭✭

    A couple thing pop out on this one---the reference to Hyacinthus seems pretty esoteric for an early 9th-century monk. You'd expect him to know something of the classical writers, but seems like he'd have to be surprisingly well-read from a library bigger than I thought they had at Reichenau at the time to pick that one up.

    The other thing is that he appears to refer to using the root as a starch for cloth. Didn't know about that at all.

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  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,354 admin
    https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/880142#Comment_880142

    He was pretty well educated:

    "Walafrid was sent as a child to the monastery of Reichenau (at left), located on an island in Lake Constance, just north of the border between Germany and Italy. A remarkable student and writer, at the age of 18 Walafrid went to Fulda to study with renowned scholar Rabanus Maurus. From there, he was called to the court of King Louis, son of Charlemagne, to tutor 6-year-old Prince Charles. When Charles reached adulthood, Walafrid returned to Reichenau as its abbot."

    http://wyrtig.com/EarlyGardens/Continental/Walafrid/Hortulus.htm

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  • MaryRowe
    MaryRowe Posts: 736 ✭✭✭✭

    Yeah, I should have thought about Fulda--Rabanus Maurus was pretty open-minded. They had Ovid's love poetry and other classical texts there that scandalized the more rigidly pious. Seems like when Walafrid tosses in a reference like that one, which he had to have gotten from Ovid or somebody equally objectionable to the straighter-laced, he's not just showing off his learning, he's tweaking the noses of many of his colleagues--a monk's insider joke, more or less. What a fascinating guy!

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  • judsoncarroll4
    judsoncarroll4 Posts: 5,354 admin
    https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/880159#Comment_880159

    I was surprised by his sense of humor. I think Hortulus was really an outlet for enjoyment for him. As he was nearing the end of his short life, and was already quite accomplished, perhaps he felt more free to be unrestrained. If his name was a reference to being "squint eyed", he likely was quite bookish.

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