Hesperides Offer their Citruses to the God of Lake Garda. Illustration for Hesperides... by G. B. Ferrari (Rome 1646)

Hesperides sive de malorum aureorum cultura et usu, published in Rome in 1646, is one of the most magnificent works of 17th-century book art. It is a discourse on citrus trees by Jesuit scholar and botanist Giovanni Battista Ferrari, a friend of influential scholar, connoisseur of art and the first and most prominent patron of Poussin in Rome, Cassiano dal Pozzo, who cooperated on Hesperides. The prestigious work is adorned with numerous botanically and mythologically themed engravings by sought-after Roman artists (such as Cornelis Bloemaert and Johann Friedrich Greuter after designs by Guido Reni, Pietro da Cortona, Domenichino, Nicolas Poussin and others). These mythological illustrations became models for many Baroque artworks depicting the myth of Hesperides and the golden apples (citrus fruit).