Lago di Garda

Copper engraved map, from Volckamer’s ‘Nürnbergischen Hesperidum’, hand coloured, title decorated with puttis, central vertical fold, good margin, overall size 360 430mm, Nuremberg, c.1713

A striking and rare geographical map of Lake Garda from the first volume of Volckamer’s famous ‘Nürnbergischen Hesperidum’. Despite the detail showing the towns, villages, castles, mountains and the lake, this map has no cartographic ambition. It is highly decorative in order to accompany the tables contained in the work, along with numerous engravings depicting citrus fruits, palaces, gardens, labyrinths of the various citrus specialities. The spectacular illustrations were based on Giovanni Battista Ferrari’s Hesperides.

Johann Christoph Volckamer was a merchant from Nuremberg with a passion for botany. After visiting a great many gardens and parks in Italy, he developed an interest in citrus and started cultivating and building his own garden. Starting from late 17th Century, there developed a collecting passion among the aristocracy, who tried to outdo one another with the rarest and most bizarre citrus fruits, imported at great expense from south of the Alps and developing into a symbol of social status and power. With this work the term ” Hesperides ” became the symbol for the flowering Nurembergian garden culture, which lasted from 1650 onwards up to the late 18th century. Volckamer’s work is desired for its beauty as well as for its scientific content.