“Viperino flore” Aquitanica. Original antique botancial print engraved by Seligmann after the painting by Ehret and published by Jacob Trew c.1760. From “Hortus Nitidissimis Omnem”.

This original antique botanical engraving is from the famous 18th-century botanical book Hortus Nitidissimis Omnem per Annum Superbiens Floribus (The Most Brilliant Garden Exulting in Flowers All Year Round).

The original drawing was by Georg Ehret,one of the most influential European botanical artists of the 18th century

The Plant: “Viperino flore” is the Fritillaria aquitanica (commonly known today as a variation of Mission Bells or Fritillary). The phrase translates from Latin to mean a flower resembling or associated with a viper/snake.

The Engraver, who transferred the original drawing to the copper plate for printing, Johann Michael Seligmann, a prominent German engraver and publisher based in Nuremberg. His namke can be seen at the bottom of the image.

‘Hortus Nitidissimis’ is considered one of the finest and most luxurious florilegia of the 18th century, documenting the most beautiful cultivated flowers found in Central European gardens during that era.

The massive project was compiled and published by the physician and botanist Christoph Jacob Trew between 1750 and 1786.