Medicinal Flowers Journal — Volkamer 1708 Nürnbergische Hesperides

In Greek mythology, the Hesperides were the nymphs who tended a garden at the western edge of the world, where golden apples grew on trees guarded by a serpent that never slept — and when the Nuremberg physician and botanist Johann Christoph Volkamer (1644–1720) named his great botanical work the Nürnbergische Hesperides, he was making a claim: that his gardens in Nuremberg were a place where rare and beautiful plants grew in abundance, tended with the knowledge of a man who understood that beauty and healing were inseparable; both covers reproduce medicinal flower plates from his Nürnbergische Hesperides (Nuremberg, 1708–1714) — one of the most celebrated botanical books of the eighteenth century, documented with hand-colored copper engravings produced by the finest engravers working in Germany at the time, each plate rendering the healing plants of Volkamer's Nuremberg gardens with the botanical precision of a physician and the chromatic richness of the hand-coloring tradition at its height.

Read the full story →

Product Details

• Format: Hardcover journal with matte laminated full-wrap cover
• 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: 250 g (0.55 lbs)
• Cover: Matte laminated full-wrap print

Perfect For

• Herbalists and plant medicine practitioners drawn to the German botanical tradition
• Apothecary enthusiasts and flower essence makers celebrating the Baroque healing garden
• Botanical garden lovers and medicinal plant growers keeping field and garden journals
• Collectors of early 18th-century German botanical illustration and rare book art
• Vintage botanical art admirers drawn to the hand-colored copper engraving tradition
• Thoughtful gift for anyone who finds beauty and healing in the medicinal plants of Baroque Europe