Planet Landscapes By Edgar Moskopp

It is believed that the terms landskift, landscipe or landscaef entered Britain some time after the 5th century . These terms referred to a system human-made spaces in the land - spaces such as fields with boundaries though not necessarily defined by fences or walls. It also referred to a natural unit, a region or tract land such as a river valley or range hills as occupied by a tribe or later, ruled by a feudal lord. The term is similar in meaning to the German landschaft referring to a small administrative unit or region. The term fell into disuse and by the time the Doomsday Book in the 11th century the word did not appear in any translation from the Latin.
The modern form the word with its connotations scenery appeared in the late 16th century when the term landschap was introduced by Dutch painters when referring to paintings inland natural or rural scenery. Landscape, first recorded in 1598, was borrowed as a painters' term from Dutch during the 16th century, when Dutch artists were on the verge becoming masters the landscape art genre. The Dutch word landschap had earlier meant simply 'region, tract land' but had acquired the artistic sense, which it brought over into English, 'a picture depicting scenery on land'.
According to Jackson: "From 1577 with Harrison's Description Britain onwards, a new awareness the aesthetic nature landscape emerged as a new kind topographical writing flourished...". Originally the term was translated landskip which the Oxford English Dictionary refers to as the corrupt form the word, gradually to be replaced by landscape. The English word is not recorded as used for physical landscapes before 1725.
Following a lengthy analysis concentrating on the German term landschaft, Richard Hartshorne defined landscape as referring to "the external, visible, (or touchable) surface the earth. This surface is formed by the outer surfaces, those in immediate contact with the atmosphere, vegetation, bare earth, snow, ice, or water bodies or the features made by man."