Johann Prokop Mayer (2 July 1737, Muncifaj,

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

– 25 July 1804) was an Austrian

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

. He created the

flower garden A flower garden or floral garden is any garden or part of a garden where plants that flower are grown and displayed. This normally refers mostly to herbaceous plants, rather than flowering woody plants, which dominate in the shrubbery and w ...

s at the

Würzburg Residence The Würzburg Residence (German: ''Würzburger Residenz'') is a palace in Würzburg, Germany. Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt and Maximilian von Welsch, representatives of the Austrian/Southern German Baroque style, were involved in the construct ...

Biography

After three years of apprenticeship in Prague, Mayer travelled as a journeyman through Germany, Austria, France, Holland and England from 1755. In the years 1760/61 Mayer worked for 15 months as a journeyman in the Veitshöchheim court garden with the then court gardener Georg Joseph Ott. In 1770 he succeeded Johann Demeter as court gardener to the Würzburg Prince-Bishop

Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim Adam Friedrich Graf von Seinsheim (1708–1779) was the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg from 1755 to 1779 and Prince-Bishop of Bamberg from 1757 to 1779. Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim was born in Regensburg on 16 February 1708, the son of Maximilian ...

and held this position until his death. It was here, among other things, that he drew up the plans for the redesign of the Court Garden until 1779, which were also largely implemented. At the same time, he worked as a planner and advisor for aristocratic houses in neighbouring estates and ran a nursery for fruit trees himself. Between 1776 and 1801 he published his three-volume textbook on the study of fruit varieties ''Pomona Franconica'' with botanical book illustrations by the Nuremberg native Wolfgang Adam. In his pomological standard work, Mayer described all the fruit varieties cultivated in the court garden as well as his many years of experience in fruit tree cultivation. On full-page plates, artistically cut shaped fruit trees and on hand-coloured copperplate engravings, over 500 ripe fruits are shown. In 2007, the Würzburg University Library and the

Martin von Wagner Museum The Martin von Wagner Museum contains the art collection of the University of Würzburg and has been located in the south wing of the Würzburg Residence since 1963. It is among the largest university museums in Europe. History Franz Joseph F ...

, together with the Bavarian Palace Department, organized an exhibition on this book in the Würzburg Residence. As a result, a Munich art dealer became aware of the book and privately procured a double portrait of the court gardener and his wife Eleonora Winterstein from Gaibach, which the Martin von Wagner Museum purchased in May 2009. It is only with these portraits that a portrait of the Würzburg court gardener can be shown to the public for the first time from autumn 2009. The two pastels from 1786 were painted by the Moravian-born painter Peter Straßburger, who lived in Würzburg from 1774. The portraits bear Mayering's signature on the reverse, from which experts conclude that both portraits are from the family of Mayer's youngest daughter.

Works

*1776–1801 ''Pomona Franconica oder natürliche Abbildung und Beschreibung der besten und vorzüglichsten europäischen Gattungen der Obstbäume und Früchte, welche in dem Hochfürstlichen Hofgarten zu Würzburg gezogen werden,'' Verlag Winterschmidt, Nürnberg *1779 Bemerkungen über natürliche Gegenstände der Gegend um Schüttenhofen in Böhmen, und eines Theils der benachbarten Gebirge.'' Abhandlungen einer Privatgesellschaft in Böhmen, zur Aufnahme der Mathematik, der vaterländischen Geschichte, und der Naturgeschichte'' 4: 132–184. *1786 ''Verzeichniß der in- und ausländischen Gewächse an Blumen, Stauden, Sträuchern und Bäumen, welche sich dermalen im hiesigen Hochfürstlichen Hof- und Residenzgarten vorfinden, uns sowohl im freyen, als in Glas- und Treibhäusern gezogen, und verwahrt werden: Zur Bequemlichkeit und Erinnerung der'' ..., Verlag Sartorius, 1786

References

*Werner Meyer, 1979 ''Deutsche Burgen, Schlösser und Festungen'' Verlag Weidlich, 1979, Seite 217, *Karl Schäfer Johann Prokop Mayer 1735- 1804. In Würzburger Hofgärtner. In: Mainfränkisches Jahrbuch für Geschichte und Kunst Band 32 (1980), Seite165-176 *Verena Friedrich and Stefan Kummer 2007 ''Pomona Franconica. Früchte für den Fürstbischof, Begleitbuch zur Ausstellung der

Universitätsbibliothek Würzburg The Universitätsbibliothek Würzburg is the central library of the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. As a regional library of Lower Franconia, it collects Lower Franconian literature. The Universitätsbibliothek Würzburg is maintained ...

in der Residenz Würzburg in Zusammenarbeit mit der Bayerischen Verwaltung der Staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen, und dem Martin-von-Wagner-Museum der Universität Würzburg'' Bonitas-Bauer Druck und Medien, Würzburg 2007, {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayer, Johann Prokop 1737 births 1804 deaths People from Smečno German Bohemian people Austrian naturalists 18th-century Austrian botanists 18th-century naturalists from the Holy Roman Empire