Research Catalog

Title

Hortus Eystettensis : the Bishop's garden and Besler's magnificent book / Nicolas Barker.

Author

Barker, Nicolas.

Publication

New York : H.N. Abrams, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Besler, Basilius, 1561-1629.

Description

vii, 80, 80 pages : color illustrations; 39 cm

Summary

• In the early seventeenth century the Prince-Bishop of Eichstatt, Germany, created a splendid garden, the first to contain all the shrubs and flowering plants known at the time, including the latest imports from the Orient and America. When the garden was complete, he commissioned a monumental picture book of the plants - the Hortus Eystettensis (Garden of Eichstatt), published in 1613 by botanist-apothecary Basilius Besler, who had helped to develop the garden.
• That book, printed from elaborately prepared copper engravings in a very large format, has 367 plates beautifully illustrating more than 1,000 species. Gardeners and horticulturalists, bibliophiles and botanists, indeed anyone with an interest in the history of gardens and botanical illustrations will be captivated by this beautifully printed, carefully researched, and thoroughly engaging book.

Subject

• Besler, Basilius, 1561-1629. > Illustrations
• Besler, Basilius
• Hortus Eystettensis (Besler, Basilius)
• Botanical illustration > Early works to 1800
• Botany > Pre-Linnean works
• Botanical illustration
• Botany
• Hortus Eystettensis (Germany) > Early works to 1800
• Hortus Eystettensis (Germany)
• Germany > Hortus Eystettensis

Genre/Form

• Early works.
• Illustrated works.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Contents

Prologue: The Garden of Eichstatt: an eye-witness's account -- The History of the Book. The Bishop and his garden. Printing and publication: the evidence of the book. Printing and publication: the archival sources. Later history -- Creating the Plates. The sources of the plates. Transfer from nature to plate -- Colouring the Book. The early coloured copies. The later coloured copies -- Catalogue of the Coloured Copies -- App. A: Documents -- App. B: Record of colour variants -- App. C: Engravers' and illuminators' signatures -- App. D: Analysis of the Schedel Kalendarium -- App. E: Colour reversal -- App. F: Chemical analysis of the pigments used in modern copies.

ISBN

• 0810934248
• 9780810934245

LCCN

94007106

OCLC

• ocm29954069
• 29954069
• SCSB-2049312

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library