The first volume to appear in the Natural History series catalogues a
group of spectacular drawings of citrus fruit in watercolour and
gouache, most of which were commissioned to illustrate Giovanni Battista
Ferrari's Hesperides, an ambitious attempt at a complete taxonomy and
classification of the entire citrological world, which was published in
Rome in 1646. Cassiano dal Pozzo played a fundamental role in this
project: it was he who commissioned and supplied most of the drawings
and then arranged for them to be engraved for Ferrari's projected work.
The citrus drawings - grouped in the Catalogue under the headings of
citrons, lemons, oranges, pummelos, hybrids, monstrosities and
unidentified citrus fruit - are reproduced in full colour and are
accompanied by a wealth of comparative material which includes the
Hesperides engravings, additional drawings and photographs of actual
specimens, mainly of the monstrous kind. In addition to detailed
scientific descriptions of the specimens themselves, the catalogue also
gives art historical information on watermarks, annotations, types of
mount, provenance and literature. The introductory essays explain
Cassiano's method of gathering information from a network of
correspondents around Europe and consider the relationship between these
drawings and other natural history subjects commissioned by Cassiano.
The authors discuss the work of the artists involved in the project and
assess the major contribution made the classification of citrus fruit by
the collaborative efforts of Cassiano of Ferrari.
