Book Description

These memoirs, illustrated with over 400 photo­graphs, will delight anyone interested in gardens or in the Roman world. They tell the human and the scientific story of how a woman from a small town in Nebraska learned more about the gardens of Pompeii than anyone thought possible. A master raconteur, professor of ancient history and teacher of a popular general humanities class at the University of Maryland, Wilhelmina Jashemski will fascinate both the Pompeian expert and the newcomer to the subject. She set out in 1955 with her husband, Stanley Jashemski, to explore the gardens of the Roman empire with the intent to write a scholarly book on the subject. At first she thought Pompeii would be only one chapter. As she got into the subject, however, she realized that many years were required to do justice to the gardens of the Vesuvian area alone. In 1961, the Italian authorities, impressed by the thoroughness of her study of existing materials, allowed her to re-excavate an open area. She surprised everyone by finding root cavities and revealing the planting pattern of an ancient vineyard. She was then able to excavate extensively in Pompeii and at the newly discovered grand villa of Oplontis nearby. Stanley Jashemski, a physicist by profession, became a skilled photographer, draftsman, and general travel and research manager. Using the best photographic equipment available at the time, he recorded both the results of their research and the life around them. In this volume, his pictures illustrate findings and events in Pompeii and Oplontis and also the stories of their travels through England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Greece, Egypt, Spain and Portugal. The intended chapter on Pompeii turned into two magnificent volumes, The Gardens of Pompeii, Herulaneum and the Villas Destroyed by Vesuvius, for which Wilhelmina received the gold medal of the American Institute of Archaeology. She involved numerous natural scientists in the study of material from her field work, and together they produced a third volume, The Natural History of Pompeii. Her letters to her sister's children became the basis of a much-loved children's book, Letters from Pompeii, which remains an excellent introduction to Pompeii for children of any age, 8 to 80. Her observations of the use of herbs for medicine by her workers led to the book A Pompeian Herbal. Stanley's magnificent photographs were complemented by Wilhelmina's knowledge of ancient writings on herbs in Wildflowers Amid the Ruins. Now again Stanley's pictures combine with Wilhelmina's words in this posthumous publication of her memoirs of a remarkable life. All photographs in this edition are in black and white. A full-color edition is available at a higher cost. The text and pictures are otherwise the same in both editions.