Besler, Basilius.

first edition, bound in 2 volumes, broadsheets (530 x 437mm.), engraved title by Wolfgang Kilian, engraved portrait of Besler, together with his coat of arms, 4 engraved sectional titles of the seasons, 364 engraved plates of flowers and plants (only, of 366) on 365 leaves (only, of 367; the first figure in Summer 3 comprises two plates joined to form one folding plate “Martagon Imperiale”), text on the versos of the plates, eighteenth-century mottled half calf, without privilege leaves, lacks Spring B 4)(1 and Summer 2E 14)(1, some soiling, discoloration, dampstaining, repaired tears and strengthening, some plates trimmed, binding slightly worn

Cleveland Herbal 159; Hunt 430 (1713 edition); Nissen BBI 158; Pritzel 745; Stafleu TL2 497; see also Nicolas Barker, Hortus Eystettensis: The Bishop’s Garden and Besler’s Magnificent Book (London, 1995)

the greatest, largest and most spectacular of the florilegia, Besler’s monumental work commemorated the famous gardens of the Prince Bishop of Eichstätt, Johann Conrad von Gemmingen (c. 1561–1612), and was the earliest pictorial record of flowers from a single garden. The copper plates depict over 1,000 flowers representing 667 species, many of them exotics newly imported from America and the Ottoman empire, and appearing for the first time. They are arranged according to seasons and are distinguished by their artistic composition on the page.

Besler was a Nuremberg apothecary and collector of natural curiosities. Important influences were the botanical works of Joachim Camerarius the Younger, Charles de l'Ecluse, Caspar Bauhin, Castore Durante, Caspar Schwenckfeld, Jakob Theodor (Tabernaemontanus), and Matthias de l’Obel. The Hortus was completed in Autumn 1613 and at least 300 copies were issued.

Most of the original “plate” drawings are still extant (having been preserved by Christoph Jakob Trew), and are now in the University Library, Erlangen. They are possibly by Wolfgang Kilian of Augsburg, the most important of the ten engravers involved, and are after drawings from nature by various artists. Other engravers included Georg Gärtner, Johann Leypolt, Levin van Hulsen and his son Friedrich, Peter Isselburg, Servatius Raeven and Heinrich Ulrich. The copper plates survived until 1817, when they were melted down by the Royal Mint in Munich.