Description
Description of Matthaeus Merian's Der Fruchtbringenden Gesellschast Nahman - Valentini Edition
These wonderful landscape botanicals are from the Valentini edition of the beautifully produced work entitled Der Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft Nahmen, Vorhaben Gemaehide und Woerter. Michael Bernhard Valentini was a physician as well as a medical professor and a natural history collector. In the early 1700s, Valentini reproduced several previously published works including this one in 1719. The original edition was published in Frankfurt in 1646 as the manual of the society called The Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft, founded in 1617 by Prince Ludwig of Anhalt-Köthen to improve human virtues and to purify and improve the German language. "The intention was to establish not a brotherhood of poets but a society for the fostering of an elegant language which, serving as a model and extending over the entire German-speaking world, would produce results by example and stimulation. This task the society accomplished brilliantly…. It was the prince himself who initiated the members, gave them the insignia of the society in the shape of a medallion hung around the neck, assigned to them the new characteristic names, and immortalized each new member with a picture and a stanza in the society’s manual which appeared in…1646 with engravings by Matthaeus Merian" (Faber du Faur). Every plate in the work was engraved by Merian, a topographical artist and engraver; it is his his only solo collection of botanicals. It is believed that Valentini obtained the original plates for this edition. Of the original edition, Nissen says it is one of the most beautiful emblem books ever produced. There is text on the verso of each print, so in general there may be some very light text bleed-through. It is mostly inconspicuous and to be expected with Merian prints. They are on fine chain-linked, watermarked paper that measures ~ 8 1/4" by 13 1/2."