Johann Walter. The Nassau-Idstein Florilegium

"In the middle of the seventeenth century Johann von Nassau returned to his estate and castle at Idstein, which had been devastated by the Thirty Years War. A sophisticated collector, he acquired paintings, stuffed birds and objects of every kind for his cabinet of curiosities. He created a garden full of rare plant species, grottoes decorated with shells, fountains, and flower-beds in the shape of vegetables and fruit. In the desire to immortalize his garden, Johann von Nassau engaged Johann Walter (1604-1677), a painter from Strasbourg, to record it. This was the origin of the Florilegium, a work of great artistic quality.

Now kept in the department of Prints and Photography of the BNF, it comprises 54 gouaches on vellum, including a portrait of the prince in his cabinet of curiosities, a portrait of the painter, and views of the castle and garden, following by 30 plates depicting flowers and 12 depicting fruits, all remarkable originality."