What is "hortus conclusus"

Hortus conclusus is a Latin term, meaning literally "enclosed garden". "The word ' garden' is at root the same as the word 'yard'. It means an enclosure", observed Derek Clifford, at the outset of a series of essays on garden design. Thus, at their root, both of the words in hortus conclusus refer linguistically to enclosure.

Hortus conclusus is both an emblematic attribute and a title of the Virgin Mary in Medieval and Renaissance poetry and art, suddenly appearing in paintings and manuscript illuminations about 1330 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.