BY BASILIUS BESLER (1561-1629)

Details

A SET OF THREE BOTANICAL ENGRAVINGS FROM HORTUS EYSTETTENSIS
BY BASILIUS BESLER (1561-1629)
Depicting Tulips, Narcissi and Snakeshead Frittillary and Nerion Flore rubrio respectively, each hand-coloured with latin inscriptions, in a fluted giltwood later frame with beaded border, the reverse with Ursus Prints label
27½ x 24½ in. (70 x 62 cm.), including frame (3)

Provenance

Ursus Prints, 981 Madison Avenue, New York.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The Hortus Eystettensis is a pictorial record of the flowers grown in the greatest German garden of its time, that of the Prince Bishop of Eichstätt, Johann Conrad von Gemmingen (d.1612). At the Willibaldsburg castle, his seat above the river Altmühl, the Prince Bishop had constructed eight separate gardens, each with its own gardeners and each filled with flowers from a different country; in tulips alone he boasted of 500 colours. The great German botanist, Joachim Camerarius the Younger, served the Prince Bishop as advisor on the garden's early design and on his death in 1598 a Nuremberg apothecary, Basilius Besler (1561-1629) took on the role. It was Besler who had the garden immortalised in detailed and delicate engravings for the year-round enjoyment of his patron and for posterity in the Hortus Eystettensis.

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