Giovanni Battista Ferrari (c. 1582-1655) was an Italian Jesuit, professor, and botanist. In 1646 he published Hesperides Sive de Malorum Aureorum Cultura et Usu Libri Quatuor, a work devoted to citrus fruit, its many variations, and its medicinal properties. Hesperides... was the result of Ferrari's close relationship with Cassiano dal Pozzo, one of Rome's leading scholars of natural history, who had a passion for the citrus family. Included were 110 copper-engraved plates of life-sized whole fruit and sections of the fruit. The plates were engraved by various renown artists of the time, including Cornelis Bloemaert, Johann Friedrich Greuter, and Nicolas Joseph Foucault. This lovely engraving shows a striped orange.

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Condition: A

A fine impression on watermarked paper with a few very minor spots of discoloration.