Cistus : Plate No. 392 – Johann Wilhelm Weinmann

Plate No. 392 – Johann Wilhelm Weinmann, Phytanthoza Iconographia

This intricate hand-colored botanical engraving is Plate No. 392 from Phytanthoza Iconographia, an ambitious and highly influential botanical compendium published between 1737 and 1745 by Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683–1741), a German apothecary and botanist based in Regensburg. The plate illustrates four species of flowering plants grouped under the genus Cistus and related forms, some now known under different names due to later taxonomic revisions.

Illustrated Plants:

• a. Cistus Ledon foliis laurinis
  This large central plant resembles a species of Cistus (commonly known as rock rose), notable for its laurel-like leaves and showy pink flowers. These plants were appreciated both for their beauty and for their aromatic resins (like labdanum), historically used in perfumery and medicine.
• b. Cistus Ledon folio Rosmarini (Alpe-Rose)
  Depicted at the top left, this alpine rose, with its rosemary-like foliage and delicate blossoms, likely represents a small-leaved Rhododendron or similar alpine shrub, illustrating the period’s tendency to group plants by visual analogy rather than genetic taxonomy.
• c. Cistus Rosmarinus sylvestris (Rosmarin Sauvage, Wilde Rosmarin)
  In the top right corner, this “wild rosemary” features yellow flowers and slender leaves. Although named after Rosmarinus (true rosemary), it may correspond to a different genus altogether, possibly a species like Halimium or Hypericum, again showing early botanical classification practices.
• d. Cistus palustris, Hepatique blanche (Weisse Leberblüm)
  At the lower left, this is a representation of the white hepatica (Hepatica nobilis var. alba), a woodland plant used in traditional medicine for liver ailments (hence the name “liverwort”).

Historical Context:

Johann Wilhelm Weinmann’s Phytanthoza Iconographia was a landmark in botanical illustration, comprising over 1,000 plates and nearly 4,000 plant illustrations. It was one of the first works to use color mezzotint printing, a revolutionary technique at the time that allowed for richly detailed and vividly colored images on a large scale.

Weinmann employed a team of artists and engravers, the most famous being Georg Dionysius Ehret, who later became one of the leading botanical illustrators of the 18th century. Although Ehret eventually left the project (allegedly over disputes with Weinmann), his influence can be seen in the elegance and clarity of the illustrations.

The Phytanthoza Iconographia was both a scientific and artistic triumph. It served not only as a botanical reference for scholars, apothecaries, and horticulturalists but also as a decorative and educational object for wealthy patrons and collectors during the Enlightenment, a time of growing fascination with the natural world.

Today, Weinmann’s work is valued for its contributions to both botanical science and the history of printmaking, representing a bridge between pre-Linnaean classification and the systematic botanical taxonomy that would emerge later in the 18th century.