Mayer's Pomona Franconica and Drafts for Another Planned Botanical Book

Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruitfulness, lent her name to the three-volume work Pomona Franconica, which focuses on fruit varieties and the cultivation of fruit trees. Johann Prokop Mayer (1735–1804), the court gardener of Würzburg, published it between 1776 and 1801. Mayer found the quality of illustrations in contemporary books on pomology unsatisfactory. To produce a better-quality book, he collaborated with Wolfgang Adam Winterschmidt, the leading botanical illustrator of his time and a publisher in Nuremberg. In addition to Pomona Franconica, Mayer planned another multi-volume publication featuring elaborate and detailed depictions of plants. This project was announced as early as 1776 in the “Litteratur des katholischen Deutschlands” (Catholic German Literature). However, the project, which was to include North American plants cultivated in the Würzburg Court Garden, was never published. What remains are five booklets containing a total of 83 colored drawings, likely including some drafts for the planned publication. The artist responsible for the illustrations is unknown.