Johann Wilhelm Weinmann

Johann Wilhelm Weinmann  1683-1741

Johann Weinmann was a prominent apothecary in Regensberg, located on the Danube in Bavaria. He was responsible for the publication of the Phytanthoza Iconographia (1737-1745). It was a huge work consisting of 1006 plates illustrating over 3,000 plants, including trees, fruit, flowers, herbs and vegetables. Astoundingly, all these plants were cultivated in his own garden. While some of the plants proved to be fictitious, the work was considered to be a valuable contribution to botany. His printing technique was also new, in that it was the first botanical work to utilize colour printed mezzotints. He combined this technique with line engraving to produce richer textures and greater subtlety than previously achieved. He frequently grouped plants on a page and identified them at the bottom of the plate. His principal and gifted artist, Georg Dionysius Ehret, is not acknowledged in the work due to a dispute between them. Ehret has been described as 'a giant among flower painters' (Buchanan).

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