Emanuel Sweert Marigold Journal — 1612 Frankfurt Florilegium Catalogue Notebook

The Frankfurt Book Fair of 1612 was one of the great commercial events of the European year — a gathering of printers, publishers, and merchants from across the continent. But among the books that filled the stalls that year, there appeared something unusual: a catalogue of flowers. Emanuel Sweert, a Dutch plant merchant who had served as keeper of the imperial gardens for Rudolf II in Prague, had brought to Frankfurt an illustrated catalogue of the exotic plants he had for sale — tulips and hyacinths, anemones and fritillaries, and, among them, the marigolds that appear on the cover of this journal. The Florilegium that Sweert published at the fair was one of the first illustrated plant catalogues in the history of botany: a work that combined scientific documentation with commercial enterprise at the extraordinary moment when the passion for exotic flowers was beginning to transform the economies and cultures of northern Europe.

The marigolds Sweert documented — Tagetes erecta and its relatives, brought to Europe from the Americas in the sixteenth century — are among the most vivid plants in his catalogue. Their golden and orange flowers, their extraordinary productivity, their pungent scent noted by every herbalist of the period: all rendered by Johann Theodor de Bry with the engraving precision of the finest Frankfurt workshop. The front cover carries those marigold plates; the back cover continues the florilegium — a wraparound garden of Renaissance botanical commerce, documented four centuries ago and preserved here for you.

Product Details

• Format: Hardcover journal
• Pages: 150 lined pages (75 sheets) with perforations for easy removal
• Binding: Casewrap sewn binding — flexible and lay-flat
• Dimensions: 5.75 × 8 inches
• Weight: 100 g
• Cover: Matte laminated full-wrap print
• Illustration: Emanuel Sweert, Florilegium (1612), engraved by Johann Theodor de Bry — Frankfurt
• African marigolds, Tagetes erecta — Renaissance botanical commerce

Perfect For

• Marigold enthusiasts and gardeners
• Renaissance art and botanical history lovers
• Florilegium and early plant catalogue collectors
• Garden journaling and plant observation notes
• Lovers of Dutch Golden Age art and botanical commerce
• A beautiful gift for gardeners and nature lovers

The Story Behind the Plates

The Frankfurt Fair of 1612, Rudolf II’s imperial gardens in Prague, and how the marigold travelled from Mexico to the heart of the European garden — read the full story on our blog →