Hesperides sive de Malorum Aureorum cultura et usu. Libri Quatuor
Giovanni Battista Ferrari
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This book on citrus fruit by Giovanni Battista Ferrari (1584–1655), published in Rome in 1646, belongs to one of the most splendid and scientifically precise botanical works of seventeenth-century Europe. Its illustrations, etched by Cornelis Bloemaert, were designed by the foremost artists of the day, including Nicolas Poussin and Guido Reni. The book reflects the author's own interest in gardening and collecting exotic plants, a pursuit facilitated by his position as Jesuit man-of-letters in the circle of scholars and natural scientists at the papal court. In fact, his first book, De florum cultura, published in Rome in 1633, was dedicated to Cardinal Barberini, and depicted exotic plants from the Barberini garden. Ferrari subsequently turned from flowers to the study of citrus fruits, publishing what is the first scholarly work describing the orange, lime, lemon, and their varieties. The publication of his book coincided with the growing interest in and structural sophistication of seventeenth-century orangeries, forerunners of greenhouses, needed to keep the delicate trees protected from the cold of Northern Europe or heat of Italian summers. As the title of the book indicates, the central theme is the mythical garden of the Hesperides, comparing it with the contemporary flowering of the Italian garden during the 'Golden Age' of the Barberini reign. The print shown here is made after a drawing by Guido Reni, depicting allegorical figures representing the Hesperides themselves and several gardeners planting trees and tending the orangerie garden.
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.