Designs Upon the Land: elite landscapes of the Middle Ages. By Oliver H Creighton. Pp viii+256, 12 col, 33 b&w ills, 34 line drawings. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2009. ISBN 9781843834465. £40 (hbk).

摘要

This book is a synthesis of recent scholarship on the idea that the (elite) medieval mind conceived of the land – territory – as having aesthetic and symbolic aspects which were, in one way or another, enhanced by ‘design’. The scope is Anglocentric but with examples drawn, wherever possible, from Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and with some reference to continental parallels. It is a well-written account and is well illustrated, particularly with regard to the clear line drawings. It also contains an extensive bibliography. Unfortunately, the publisher has imposed the incredibly irritating system of banishing text references to ‘notes’ at the end of each chapter, forcing the reader to double-handle to find any reference. Most descriptions, discussions and illustrations of individual sites are referenced to primary sources; an exception is Ravensworth Castle (North Yorkshire), new understanding of which has been divorced from its origination in surveys of the standing masonry by Peter Ryder (1979) and the earthworks by Colin Lofthouse (1997).