- Rendez-vous de l'Institut
- Conference
“Les Hespérides de Nuremberg” : Les réseaux botaniques et la culture des agrumes autour de 1700 by Iris LAUTERBACH – Château de Bénouville
The Nuremberg Hesperides: Botanic networks and citrus growing around the year 1700
The conference will explain how, since the 16th century, horticulture and botanic gardening became an integral part of civilian culture in Germany’s major trading towns: Augsburg, Breslau, Hamburg, Nuremberg. Under his title “Hespérides de Nuremberg”, Johann Christoph Volkamer, a wealthy trader from Nuremberg, presents his own collection of citrus fruit. This work, which was published in two volumes in 1708/14, is famous for its extravagant illustrations and rich text. Thanks to his vast network of botanists and gardeners across the globe, Volkamer had succeeded in gathering one of the most important collections of citrus fruit and exotic plants of his time.
Iris Lauterbach
After studying history of art and language philology at Mainz, Pavia and Paris, Iris Lauterbach worked at the Christian institute of Archaeology and History of Art of Freibourg. She has conducted researches at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome and taught History of the Art of gardens at the technical University of Munich. She is a co-founding member of the international history of art network, the network for German orangeries and the German historical gardens circle for the art of gardens and landscape culture.