Episode 237: The Apothecary

This episode features writer, garden historian and returning guest Caroline Ball. In eighteenth-century Bavaria a prosperous apothecary, Johann Wilhelm Weinmann began an extraordinary project, the compilation of an A to Z of plants, meticulously documented, and lavishly illustrated by botanical artists using the latest colour-printing methods of the time. He aimed to include thousands of plants from all over the world, describing their individual characteristics and commissioning magnificent colour illustrations of each specimen.

The first complete volume of the Phytanthoza Iconographia, as he called it, was published in 1737 and the work grew to four immense tomes. The Iconographia gives an unparalleled view of the ornamental and useful plants that were known to botanists and gardeners in the early eighteenth-century. Caroline has written two books, A Splendour of Succulents & Cacti and A Cornucopia of Fruit & Vegetables, which document how this piece of work came to be collated and which reproduce many of the amazing images featured within. 

Dr Ian Bedford’s Bug of the Week: Butterfly Tongues & Buddleia

What We Talk About 

Johann Wilhelmina Weinmann and his Phytanthoza Iconographia 

Where Weinmann sourced the plants that were included

The painters who documented the specimens

Historical plant pots

How the work was reproduced

Matching the plants depicted to contemporary specimens

Are historical botanical texts merely a curiosity, or can they inform our knowledge of horticulture in the present day?

Some of the more surprising medicinal uses for plants that are documented in the book

About Caroline Ball & the Phytanthoza Iconagraphia

In eighteenth-century Bavaria a prosperous apothecary, Johann Wilhelm Weinmann, grew an ‘American aloe’ that astounded all who saw it. He was also the mastermind behind an extraordinary project - a comprehensive A to Z of plants, meticulously documented, and lavishly illustrated by botanical artists using the latest colour-printing methods of the time. Weinmann aimed to include thousands of plants from all over the world, describing their individual characteristics and commissioning magnificent colour illustrations of each specimen. The first complete volume of the Phytanthoza Iconographia, as he called it, was published in

1737 and the work grew to four immense tomes. The Iconographia gives an unparalleled view of the ornamental and useful plants that were known to botanists and gardeners in the early eighteenth-century.

Caroline Ball is an editor, copywriter and occasional translator who has written on many subjects, but has a particular interest in horticulture, garden history and plant-hunters. She is also a keen gardener.

Caroline’s books A Splendour of Succulents & Cacti and A Cornucopia of Fruit & Vegetables feature illustrations from an eighteenth-century botanical treasury, celebrating Weinmann’s rare and precious volumes by theme. 

Links

A Splendour of Succulents & Cacti

A Cornucopia of Fruit & Vegetables: Illustrations from an eighteenth-century botanical treasury

Members of the public can explore the collections via the Bodleian’s online image portal here.

digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Other episodes if you liked this one:

Heritage Apples with Caroline Ball

Herbs with the Herb Society

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