Das Zeitige.

Rare, c.17th hand coloured emblemtic botanical engraving, identifying a member of the  Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft (Fruitbearing Society) that was formed and operated within a symbolic system that included passwords and emblematic language.

First and best edition (1646), of this emblematic register in the form of a botanical engraving  of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft (Fruitbearing Society), founded at Weimar in 1617. Each engraving from this series, records each member with an assigned plant, frequently fruit-bearing together with a Gesellschaftsname (society name), Wahlspruch (motto), and Sinnspruch (explanatory verse), all engraved beneath the emblematic device. The Society was conceived as a literary and moral academy dedicated to the cultivation and purification of the German language, the society employed horticultural metaphor to express ideals of refinement, constancy, and productivity. Matthaus Merian’s finely engraved plates combine botanical observation with baroque emblematic design, forming both a visual roll of membership and a significant document of c.17th German literary culture.

From: Merian, Matthaus: Der Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft. Nahmen, Vorhaben, Gemählde und Worter. Frankfurt am Main 1646.

References:
Nissen, C. Die Botanische Buchillustration. Stuttgart 1966 1343.

Collections:
University Wisconsin-Milwaukee: Vault X47BH F94 XF94
University of Edinburgh: LC : 71882820