Abraham Munting (Born 1626) was a botanist, a botanical artist and a physician from Holland. He was professor of botany at the University of Groningen. He studied botany and medicine as a young man and traveled a lot. At one time he lived in France. When he returned to Holland, Munting joined the faculty at the University of Groningen, and remained here for 24 years as an eminent professor of chemistry and botany. At the university, he directed a botanical garden which was one of the most extensive of the period from 1658 to 1683. It came to be known as the "Paradise of Groningen." The garden was actually founded by his father. Munting gave botanical lectures to his students 4 times a week during the summer.
His daughter Hester died in this garden while eating deadly nightshade. Botanical friends of his had sent the seeds of many of these plants to him from and West Indies, the Dutch East, the Americas and Africa. Munting was also an author and he wrote a number of works on medical-botanical topics, but his book, Opus magnum, which was published posthumously, enjoyed particular success, which many attributed in part to the novelty of the plates, which was a radical departure from the traditional florilegium’s iconography. The publication presented plant species against a charming series of landscape backgrounds. The illustrations are remarkable for their originality and elegance. And each plate shows a different plant in flower, including many exotic species from America and other distant lands.
