Cento fiori colti nel loro mese
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Work by Abbot Angelo Franciosi, a religious and botany enthusiast, with great pictorial talent.
The work, carried out between 1805 and 1822 is divided into 12 files bound in three volumes.
Each file includes:
- A hand-written frontispiece that always repeats the same text: "One hundred flowers harvested in their month, painted with the name of the genre and species according to the Linnaeus order, transcribed in vernacular and a table at the end describing the aroma and the properties. File [...]. [year]"
- About 100 plates, hand-drawn and hand-coloured by the author, portraying plants that grow naturally in Veneto, on the coast and ornamental plants, or that are grown in gardens, accompanied by the scientific name according to Linnaeus and the name in vernacular. Both names are not present in all plates
- An index of the plants of that file, including information about properties and aromas and the date of collection
- Some pages devoted to the medicinal properties of plants in the file (or part thereof)
- Literary quotations, botanical allegories and poems by different authors, dedicated to some of the plants in the file
The plates, of exquisite artistic workmanship, are scientifically accurate and allow easy identification of the depicted plants; analytical figures are also found in some of the cross-sections of flowers and fruits.
The three volumes are available in their entirety online on the Phaidra platform:
» Description des plantes rares cultivées a Malmaison et a Navarre
