- Rendez-vous de l'Institut
- Conference
L’herbier de Gherardo Cibo by Stéphane MARIE and Dany SAUTOT – Château de Bénouville
The Gherardo Cibo herbarium
This magnificent and almost unknown herbarium was most probably created around 1564. Under conservation at the British Museum library in London, its original title was Extracts from an edition of Dioscorides’ ‘De re medica’. It reunites 131 watercolours by Gherardo Cibo (1512-1600, illustrating the plants represented in Italian landscapes in the region of Genoa. The choice of plants was made by the doctor and botanist Pietro Andrea Gregorio Mattioli (1501-1577), author of an updated interpretation of one of the major treatises on botanics and pharmacopoeia dating from Ancient Times, De Materia medica by Pedanius Dioscoride. Over and above the beauty of these plates, the landscapes they portray are precious indicators of the environments within which these plants were gathered, and on their medicinal use.
This conference will be followed by a signing session of the book co-written by Stéphane Marie, Marc Jeanson and Dany Sautot, L’herbier de Gherardo Cibo, published by Editions du Chêne in November 2017.
Free entry subject to capacity.
Stéphane Marie and Dany Sautot
Born in Cotentin, graduated from the Orleans School of Fine Arts, Stéphane Marie worked in the theatre for twelve years (scenography and costume). In the early 1990s, he returned to live in his childhood home of La Maubrairie – a house with a plot of land – where he developed a passion for gardening. Since 1998, he has been presenting Silence, ça pousse !, a France 5 TV programme on gardening. Via Editions du Chêne, since 2010, he has also published a series of five books entitled Silence, ça pousse !
Dany Sautot was editor of the magazine Les Carnets de Tendances du Jardin from 2002 to 2016. Since 2011, she has been contributing towards the landscape pages of the Architecture Aujourd’hui magazine. With Stéphane Marie, she has co-written the five-volume series of Silence, ça pousse ! published by Editions du Chêne since 2010. She also acts as commissioner for exhibitions and writes books on decorative art and design.