Sunday, September 27, 2009

Hortulus Monheimensis

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17th century florilegium



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watercolour flower sketch



'Hortulus Monheimensis' - [BSB Cod.icon. 31] is hosted by the Bavarian State Library. [click 'Miniaturansicht'] The watercolour sketches appear in the first ~300 pages of this manuscript (the rest are blank) with an illustration every two pages. It's one case where I consider the downloadable pdf to be the superior quality alternative to the website jpeg images (the link is top right of the landing page - 66Mb).

This handsome florilegium was commissioned in 1615 by Wolfgang P Brandt, a local governor or magistrate from Monheim in the east Bavarian region of Donau-Ries*. It is a rather unique record of a Renaissance garden - in this case the Monheim Palace Gardens - but unfortunately the fold-out plan of the estate wasn't digitised because of conservation issues.

For the early 17th century, this manuscript presents mostly naturalistic specimens - albeit, sans root structures - and it's fairly easy to identify many of the species. It was probably inspired or at least influenced by the great 'Hortus Eyestettensis' from 1613.

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