Copper engraving by Delsenbach. 460 x 320 mm, hand-painted. It depicts a ripe, golden pineapple plant with the fruit blossoming from a sturdy green stem. The upper section depicts a hummingbird with an elongated beak and two insects (one in flight), in the style of old natural history studies, reminiscent of Maria Sibylla Merian's prints from that period. The lower section depicts a distant landscape with natives engaged in various activities. This is one of the few, rarely found, double-sized folded sheets from the "Continuation der Nürnbergischen Hesperidum..." (Continuation of the Nürnbergian Hesperidum...). It is one of four pineapple prints from this series. This two-volume work illustrates the collection of Christoph Johann Volckamer and is richly illustrated with exquisitely beautiful illustrations. Volckamer employed several artists and engravers to create it: Paul Decker, B. Kenkel, I.C. Steinberger, Delsenbach, T.G. Beckh, Krieger, Jos à Montategre, and others. The first volume was published in 1708, and the second in 1714. Each volume is composed of four sections dedicated to citrus fruits and one section dedicated to other flowering or fruit-bearing plants. According to scholar Gordon Dunthorne, this was the first botanical work to focus almost exclusively on fruit. The engravings in the "Continuation der Nürnbergischen Hesperidum" (1714) depict citrus fruits in the upper section, while the lower section features palaces, gardens, and labyrinths, which can be considered masterpieces of botanical art. Among the images are: La Malcontenta, Villa Pisani, Palazzo Foscarini in Stra, and numerous other palaces along the Brenta River and in the Padua and Verona provinces, with views of Quinzano, Parona, Settimo di Pescantina, and Chievo. At the beginning are large plates depicting gardens, including Villa Allegri (now Arvedi) in Cuzzano near Verona, Palazzo Morosini (Padua), Schoenbrunn, St. George's Castle near Bayreuth, and Munchausen Schwöbber (near Hamelin). At the end, this edition (from which our engraving comes) is enriched with large folded plates of exotic plants and fruits, with architecture and landscapes in their habitats. Volckamer (1644–1720) was a wealthy and enterprising merchant from Nuremberg with a deep passion for botany, the son of a doctor and botanist devoted to the study and design of gardens. In the early 1660s, he visited a multitude of gardens and parks in Italy, where he developed a special interest in the world of citrus fruits. He cultivated this passion through plant collection after returning to his native land, building his own garden, where, inspired by the numerous sketches that would later become part of his seminal work, spanning two volumes. In 1708, he published the book Nürbergisches Hesperides oder gründliche Beschreibung der edlen Citronat, Citronen - und Pomeranzen - Früchte.... Clearly inspired by Giovanni Battista Ferrari's Hesperides, a work celebrating citrus fruits (Hesperides, sive, De malorum aureorum cultura). Volckamer combines mythological influences and scientific research in a fascinating literary work, where the gifts of nature intertwine with the landscapes and architecture of villas in northeastern Italy, places where the author maintained his business contacts. Blunt: “delightful views of the gardens and palaces of Germany, Austria, and Italy.”