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Les jardins fortifiés du Moyen-Age au début de la Renaissance : du mythe à la réalité by François FICHET DE CLAIRFONTAINE – Château de Bénouville
Fortified gardens from the Middle Ages to the early Renaissance period: from myth to reality
The region of Normandy, and the departments of Calvados and Orne in particular, has unveiled the vestiges of 15th and 16th century gardens, the astonishing morphology of which is similar to that of fortifications. Towers, turrets, crenellated or simple enclosures, moats, adornments etc. are all reminiscent of 13th-14th century princely castles with their flanking towers, which these gardens appear to portray. Yet, their origin can most likely be found in the writings and the illuminations that adorned late medieval works, and in early Renaissance writings and the influence of Italian artists. Hortus conclusus and hortus deliciarum seem to have been materialised in stone in the princely residences of Caen, Le Plessis-Grimoult and Alençon, whilst similar cases are noted at the Château de Luynes. Prior to the influence of the Dream of Poliphilus, yet, for some, marked by the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, these gardens bear witness to the mystical influence, but also to courtly literature and a conception of nature and of human relations that developed as from the 12th century.
François Fichet de Clairfontaine
François Fichet de Clairfontaine is a General Curator of Heritage. After working for 19 years at the Lower Normandy Regional Cultural Affairs Directorate as Regional Curator of Archaeology, he was appointed General Inspector of Archaeology in 2014 by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication’s heritage inspection department. The same year, he joined the INRAP (National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research) scientific committee. He is also chairman of the curators’ scientific assessment commission. His specialisations stretch from archaeology to building, medieval fortified residences, antique and medieval ceramology (in France) and the Urartu period in the Achaemenid Empire (Armenia, Northern Iran and Eastern Turkey).
Since 1982, he has contributed to over 70 publications, essentially on medieval fortifications, medieval ceramics and the study of the Erebuni Fortress in Armenia. He will shortly publish, Fortified gardens from the Middle Ages to the early Renaissance period: from myth to reality (published by Trinity College Dublin).