Hortus conclusus

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Martin Schongauer, 1473

Hortus conclusus is a Latin term, meaning literally "enclosed garden". At their root, both of the words in hortus conclusus refer linguistically to enclosure.^[1]

Hortus conclusus is both an emblematic attribute and a title of the Virgin Mary in Medieval and Renaissance poetry^[2] and art, suddenly appearing in paintings and manuscript illuminations about 1330 ^[3] [4] as well as a genre of actual garden that was enclosed both symbolically and as a practical concern, a major theme in the history of gardening.^[5]