Description

Original, antique, hand coloured copper engraving.

These nine citrus prints were part of a collection compiled by Giovanni Ferrari and engraved by Cornelis Bloemaert.

These works are not only the first taxonomic study of citrus fruit, but the first exhaustive study of a single family of plants or animals. The Italian Jesuit scholar and professor Giovanni Battista Ferrari, a friend of Galileo, compiled it. The engravings were done by Dutch printmaker Cornelis Bloemaert, and are notable for their meticulous detail and decision of texture depicting life-size fruits, whole and in section.

Printed in 1646.