Michael Bernhard Valentini (1657-1729) (editor)
Viridarium Reformatum, seu Regnum Vegetabile: Krauter Buch
[Newly Revised Garden of the Plant Kingdom: Herb Book]
Valentini, Frankfurt: 1719
13.5 x 7.5 inches
Hand-colored engravings
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Pancrace Bessa Botanicals
fromFlore Des Jardiniers, Paris: 1836
fromFlore Des Jardiniers, Paris: 1836
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Plate 7 |
Plate 4 |
Plate 1 |
Plate 5 |
Plate 8 |
Plate 2 |
Plate 3 |
Plate 6 (Full sheet view)
Prints from Michael Bernhard Valentini's Viridarium Reformatum, published 1719. Valentini's set was in large part based upon the Florilegium renovatum et auctum published in 1641 by Johann Theodor de Bry (1561-1623) and Matthäus Merian, which in turn was based on de Bry's earlier work Florilegium novum (1611) and included plates by other botanical artists alongside their own. Valentini's edition added engravings after Mattioli, Bauhin and others. Valentini was a physician, professor of medicine and collector of natural history specimens, and his selection of plates is in the spirit of the wunderkammer, or "collector's cabinet" of natural history samples, intended, as his title page proclaims, a "botanical library." His text gives a detailed catalogue of the plants illustrated and other varieties, citing pictorial and textual sources. Historians have surmised that he had acquired the Merian and de Bry plates.
Plates included show:
1. N. flavus, N. albus, N. simplex, aureus, N. major
2. N. Juncifolis flore albo amplo claice, N. serot. sive autumnal minimus albus, N. latifolius Indicus rubro flore vulgo Jacobeus, N. Juncifolius luteus medius, N. major siue Pancratium flore rubris
3. Narcissus pleno flore albo, N. indicus flore rubro Vulgo Jacobeus
4. N. juncifolius, N. medio, calcedonicus
5. Hemerocallis calchidonica flore miniato, Calaminta montana praestantior, Chamaeris latifolia purpuromolacea
6. Ornithogulum Arabicum
7. Hyacinthus Indicus Tuberosa Radice major auctumnalis flore albo adoratissima
8. Lily susiani scapus cum bulbo, Lily susiani flos. vulgo Lilium Persicum
Johann Theodor de Bry (1561-1623) was an etcher, engraver and publisher, eldest son and most prolific member of a family of printmaker-publishers. The de Brys lived in Frankfurt, then a center for the production and sale of illustrated books. De Bry produced his Florilegium novum in 1611, among the most famous flower books of the period, followed by Florilegium renovatum et auctum, an expanded version which he published in the 1640s with his son-in-law, Matthäus Merian.
References:
"De Bry family." Encyclopaedia of the Renaissance, Market House Books: 1987. Xrefer.com. http://www.xrefer.com/entry/252019 (9 July 2002).
Hunt 447 and 448.
Johnston 344.
Nissen BBI 2037.
"Theodor de Bry." The Grove Dictionary of Art. New York: Macmillan. 2000. Online at Artnet.com. http://www.artnet.com/library/01/0119/T011911.asp (9 July 2002).