FERRARI, G. B. - Aurantium Maximum.

Tiré de l'ouvrage "Hesperides sive de malorum aureorum" de Giovan Battista Ferrari (botaniste italien, 1584-1655).

Decorative engraving representing a citrus fruit. Taken from the book "Hesperides sive de malorum aureorum" by Giovan Battista Ferrari (Italian botanist, 1584-1655).
Giovanni Battista Ferrari was born into a prosperous Sienese family in 1583 and entered the Jesuit Order in Rome in 1602. His subsequent career included a Professorship of Hebrew and Rhetoric at the Jesuit College in Rome, a position as horticultural advisor to the papal family, and the authorship of a number of important books. He also became a close associate of the scholar Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657) who was an advisor to the Barberini family. Through this connection, Ferrari joined an important circle of men of science in Rome, and was appointed to manage the new garden at the Barberini Palace which was unique as a showplace for the newest and rarest plants from the distant regions of Asia, Africa, and America. The cultivation of new specimens led Ferrari to the subject of botanical nomenclature, and he became a leading 17th century source for nomenclatural definition.

Ferrari’s greatest works were De Florum Cultura (1633) and Hesperides sive de Malorum Aureorum cultura (1646).
Hesperides sive de Malorum Aureorum cultura, resulted directly from his close relationship with Cassiano dal Pozzo, one of Rome’s leading scholars and patrons of natural history studies. Along with many other scholars of his time, Cassiano was intensely interested in the citrus family, and he not only corresponded extensively on the subject, he collected specimens from many quarters. In its final form, Hesperides was a collaborative work even though Cassiano’s name is not included in the authorship. He was the source of much of the information for the book, while Ferrari was the editor, composer, and author. Cassiano also managed the financing of the publication.

Hesperides includes eighty botanical plates which were the work of seven important artists of the time and the engravings were done by Johann Friedrich Greuter and Cornelis Bloemaert.