Volckamer’s spectacular illustrations were based on Giovanni Battista Ferrari’s Hesperides, which was the first book entirely devoted to citrus fruit and one of the most sumptuous baroque botanical books. Illustrated by many of the most noted classical painters of the seventeenth century, including Nicholas Poussin and Guido Reni, the Hesperides had a profound impact on contemporary botanical knowledge of citrus fruits and their classifications. Volckamer took Ferrari’s relatively scientific model in a new direction, however, by adding lovely landscape settings below the citrus fruits, which seem to hover above in the skies. The settings include formal gardens and classical villas, perhaps in order to illustrate the places in which the fruits were cultivated, or simply to add a decorative element to the representations. Volckamer’s distinctive images, therefore, were not only of scientific interest, but of considerable aesthetic appeal.

Johann Christoph Volckamer (1644-1720), a patrician from Nuremberg, inherited from his father Johann Georg Volckamer d. Ältere (the Older), an important doctor in sciences, a silk factory which was set up by his grandfather in Rovert. From 1693 to 1702 Volckamer managed to double the size of the factory's premises. In order to prove his scientific ability, Volckamer wrote a splendidly equipped monography under the title "Nürnbergische Hesperides" which is a detailed discription of precious lemon fruits and sour oranges. The opus was published in Nuremberg in 1708. Beside citrus fruits, the numerous paintings of gardens in Nuremberg and Italy were particularly remarkable.

Through the brass trade and the possession of a silk factory in Rovereto,which was founded by his grandfather, Volckamer could dedicate himself entirely to his inclinations and botanical-scientific studies, which were primarily his garden in Gostenhof. His extensive work over which Hesperides would have been unimaginable led him to reach its peak of prosperity, and by buying land from 1693 to 1702, he succeeded in extending the area almost twice as large as before, making the garden one of the largest in the world.

He published a two volume work about citrus in 1708-1714, titled "Nurenberg Hesperides, or thorough description of the noble Citron, Lemon, and Bitter Orange fruits, How to, in this and neighboring areas, correctly plant, tend,maintain and reproduce them, Together with a comprehensive enumeration of most cultivars, partly actually grown at Nuremberg, partly imported to there from various foreign places ..."

In Volckamers time people thought the "golden apples of the Hesperides" of Greek mythology referred to citrus fruit. Starting from late 17th Century, there developed a collecting passion for instance among the aristocracy, who tried to outdo one another with the rarest and most bizarre citrus fruits, imported at great expense from south of the Alps and developing into a symbol of social status and power.

With this work the term "Hesperides" became the symbol for the flowering Nurembergian garden culture, which lasted from 1650 onwards up to the late 18th Century.

The magnificent copper plates show some allegorical representations predominantly citrus fruits and various exotic plants, mostly in conjunction with beautiful gardens, castle and homestead views from southern Germany and northern Italy. Nurenberg Hesperides is an astonishing book with a series of magnificent plates in which the fruits and flowers are almost subordinate to views of gardens. His Nurnbergische Hesperides was a scientific catalog of his collection, and is regarded a one of the most beautiful works on botany
of the Baroque period.

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