Decorative Art & Frame

Antique Botanical Gallery
Room #2

Hortus Eystettensis By Basil Besler (1561-1629) Hand Colored Etching 1613 "The two immense volumes of Besler's Hortus Eystettensis - described as the massiest of the herbals and requiring a wheelbarrow to take them about - were published at Eichstatt (about forty miles south of Nuremburg) in 1613. Basil Besler (1561-1629) was a Nuremberg apothecary who 'set forth the garden of the Bishop of Eystet in Bavaria, the figures being very large, and all curiously cut in brasse, and printed upon the largest paper.' The author was fortunate in his patron, Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, from 1594 to 1612 Prince Bishop of Eichstatt. Bishop Konrad was a keen lover of flowers; he placed Besler in charge of the gardens surrounding his residence on the Wilibaldsburg of Eichstatt, encouraged him in his project, and laid out three thousand florins to cover the cost of the book." "Besler tells us that he worked intermittently for sixteen years on the drawings, though the major part of the engraving seems to have been done between 1610 and 1612. At least six engravers, of whom the most important was Wolfgang Kilian (1581-1662) of Augsburg, collaborated in making the 374 plates, upon which are portrayed more than a thousand flowers representing 667 species. These are arranged by seasons, and separate botanical details are not shown. Though the quality of the burin work is coarse and mechanical throughout, this defect is much redeemed by the splendidly decorative arrangement and treatment of the plants illustrated. The designs are really impressive, and the invention rarely flags; the rhythmic pattern of the roots, the calligraphic possibilities of lettering are fully explored and utilized; and the dramatic effect of the whole is enhanced by the noble proportions of the plates, which, when coloured, make decorations that remained unrivalled until the publications nearly two decades later of Thornton's Temple of Flora. The original plates remained at Eichstatt until 1800, when they were carried off by the French to be used as scrap metal; they escaped this fate, but have once more disappeared." Bishop Konrad "did not live to see the work issued as a whole, a fact which accounts for the dedication being dated 1612. His successor as Prince Bishop appears to have had no interest in horticulture, and within a few years, the garden, which had been created with so much love and care, had fallen into neglect." "The preface of the Hortus Estettensis contains a threat of legal action with heavy fines against any who should publish pirated editions or break up copies to sell piecemeal at fairs." If Mr. Besler had his way, many of us in the print business would now be serving time for this very infraction. (Blunt, 95-96) Blunt, Wilfrid. The Art of Botanical Illustration. Collins: London. 1971.

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