Description:
Nuremberg: Basil Besler, 1613. Excellent. Notes: Basil Besler's great botanical work, "Hortus Eystettensis .." is one the most impportant botanical books ever published.The author, Basilius Besler (1562-1629), was a Nuremberg apothecary and botanist.The work commemorated the celebrated gardens of its patron, Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, Prince Bishop of Eichstatt. 'The Book is horticultural rather than botanical, and is the earliest pictoral record of flowers in a single garden. It is divided into Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter sections and is concerned almost entirely with ornamental plants.The plates depict over 1000 flowers representing 667 species, many of them exotics appearing for the first time. The original drawings (most of them now in the University Library, Erlangen) took sixteen years to complete. With Bishops patronage Besler worked as an artist, autor and publisher directing a team of ten artists and engravers. The most important being Wolfgang Kilian of Ausburg. The work was…
Read More [Jimson weed or thorn apple] Datura Turcarum ; [Germander] Polium foliis & facie Lavendulæ; [Purple linaria] Linaria purpureo violacea elatior by BESLER, Basil (1561-1629) - 1640
by BESLER, Basil (1561-1629)
[Jimson weed or thorn apple] Datura Turcarum ; [Germander] Polium foliis & facie Lavendulæ; [Purple linaria] Linaria purpureo violacea elatior
by BESLER, Basil (1561-1629)
- Used
Eichstatt, 1640. Hand-coloured engraving. In excellent condition with the exception of being trimmed within the platemark on the top margin. Basil Besler published "Hortus Eystettensis", the earliest large folio botanical, at Eichstatt near Nuremburg, in 1613. He worked on the drawings for the 374 copper engravings over a period of sixteen years using the plants in the garden of Bishop Johann Conrad von Gemmingen, his patron. Depicted in this florilegium were flowers, herbs, vegetables and newly discovered plants such as tobacco and peppers. Besler was, in modern terms, a botanist and horticulturalist, and he was familiar with real and alleged medicinal properties of various plants. Besler had the good fortune to live at a time when exotic plants were being shipped to Europe from all over the world. The garden that he organized and illustrated for his patron was both ornamental and experimental, and the large book he had engraved after his drawings was unique. The prints, made by a team of master engravers, are strong and exquisitely done.
- Bookseller Donald Heald Rare Books (US)
- Book Condition Used
- Quantity Available 1
- Place of Publication Eichstatt
- Date Published 1640
- Keywords 17th century