Phytanthoza Iconographia (1737)

1737
The first mycology publication to use color printed engraved plates.
No. 522 [copperplate engraving]

Weinmann, Johann Wilhelm 1683-1741.
Phytanthoza Iconographia

[Ratisbonae, 1737-1745]

Image Courtesy of the Farlow Library of Cryptogamic Botany

 

Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683 - 1741) was born in Gardelegen, Germany on March 13, 1683. He settled in Regensburg in 1710 as a pharmacist's assistant and in 1712 was able to purchase his own apothecary shop. He flourished in his business affairs and this success allowed him to indulge in his great love for botany. He established a botanical garden in Regensburg published a Catalogus Alphabetico ordine exhibens Pharmaca in 1723.

In 1737-1745 Weinmann published Phytanthoza iconographia. His great work comprised eight folios with 1025 hand-colored engravings of several thousand plants. Among the artists employed to work on Phytanthoza was Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708-1770).

Unfortunately not all of Weinmann's illustrators were as familiar with botany as Ehret and the book suffered for their lack of knowledge. In The Art of Botanical Illustration (1994), Phytanthoza iconographia is described as more impressive in size than in quality.