Research Catalog
Basilius Besler : the garden at Eichstätt
- Title
- Basilius Besler : the garden at Eichstätt / authors, Klaus Walter Littger and Werner Dressendörfer.
- Author
- Besler, Basilius, 1561-1629
- Publication
- Köln : Taschen, [2023]
- ©2023
Items in the Library & Off-site
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3 Items
| Status | Vol/Date | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | v. 3 | Text | Use in library | JQG 24-134 v. 3 | Schwarzman Building - Art and Architecture Room 300 |
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | v. 2 | Text | Use in library | JQG 24-134 v. 2 | Schwarzman Building - Art and Architecture Room 300 |
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | v. 1 | Text | Use in library | JQG 24-134 v. 1 | Schwarzman Building - Art and Architecture Room 300 |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Description
- 3 volumes (approximately 1,096 pages in various pagings) : illustrations (chiefly color), facsimiles, map, portraits; 33 cm
- Summary
- When Prince-Bishop Johann Konrad von Gemmingen (1593/95–1612) undertook a radical renovation of the Willibaldsburg Castle, overlooking the Altmühl River in Eichstätt, Bavaria, he also created a surrounding palatial pleasure garden of magnificence and grandeur. To preserve the garden for future generations – and provide an ‘evergreen’ record of its contents, compiling plants from all four seasons and presenting them in that order – he commissioned the garden’s director, Nuremberg apothecary Basilius Besler (1561–1629), and a team of engravers to immortalize its treasures in print. The resulting Hortus Eystettensis, published in Nuremberg in 1613 and containing 367 hand-colored plates and detailed descriptions, was a work of meticulous execution and spectacular diversity, and remarkably expensive for its time. As the garden contained a variety of plants imported from exotic locales, the three volumes exhibited a remarkable range, covering a total of 90 families and 340 genera. Due to the decorative, stylized execution of these illustrations, which began to see plants in aesthetic, rather than merely practical or medicinal terms, the book is seen as a milestone in the art of botanical illustration. While published before a time of standardized classification systems, it was nonetheless later described by Carl Linnaeus as an 2incomparable work3.Besler’s catalog long outlived the gardens, which were destroyed in 1634 by invading Swedish troops during the Thirty Years’ War. However, a lengthy redevelopment project at the historic site has culminated in the opening of the modern Bastion Garden in 1998, containing many of the plants shown in the Hortus Eystettensis. Offering high-quality reproductions of these arresting illustrations, based on the copy of the Hortus Eystettensis at the University Library of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, this facsimile edition is accompanied by detailed plate descriptions of each plant’s botanical, pharmaceutical, and symbolic significance and an appendix of further essays which place the garden and the book in their historical contexts. This edition presents a valuable piece of botanical literature which, on the rare occasions where a copy appears on the market, can fetch prices of over $1,000,000 at auction. In line with Besler’s original intentions, this facsimile unfurls the garden to a wider audience and captures it for posterity.
- Uniform Title
- Hortus Eystettensis
- Alternative Title
- Hortus Eystettensis
- Garden at Eichstätt
- Florilegium.
- Book of plants.
- Subject
- Genre/Form
- Illustrated works.
- Note
- Imprint date on original title page: 1608.
- On spine: v. 1: Florilegium ; v. 2: Garden at Eichstätt ; v. 3: Book of plants.
- Limited edition of 7500 numbered copies.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (volume 3, pages 88-90) and indexes.
- Language (note)
- Parallel texts in German, English and French. Facsimiles in Latin.
- Call Number
- JQG 24-134
- ISBN
- 9783836594332
- 3836594331
- 9783836547161
- 3836547163
- LCCN
- 9783836594332
- 9783836547161
- OCLC
- 1414535830
- Author
- Besler, Basilius, 1561-1629, author, artist.
- Title
- Basilius Besler : the garden at Eichstätt / authors, Klaus Walter Littger and Werner Dressendörfer.
- Publisher
- Köln : Taschen, [2023]
- Copyright Date
- ©2023
- Edition
- Famous first edition.
- Type of Content
- still imagetext
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references (volume 3, pages 88-90) and indexes.
- Language
- Parallel texts in German, English and French. Facsimiles in Latin.
- Added Author
- Littger, Klaus Walter, writer of added commentary.Dressendörfer, Werner, writer of added commentary.
- Added Title
- Florilegium.Book of plants.
- Other Form:
- 97838228652799783822838099 English edition
- Other Standard Identifier
- 97838365943329783836547161
- Research Call Number
- JQG 24-134