Antique Flower Prints by Besler (1561-1629)
from the
Hortus Eystettensis

End of the 16th century, about 1590, archbishop Johann Conrad of Gemmingen arranged to build up a flower-garden at the "Willibaldsburg" near Eichstätt in Bavaria.
At all there had been 8 smaller gardens, which were arranged in a semicircle around the "Willibaldsburg" inside the fortress.
The bishop's garden at the "Willibaldsburg" in Eichstätt has been rebuilt in the last years of the 20th century. The garden hasbeen exacly reconstructed after its original state. It is also now possible to visit the garden again, nearly after 400 years.

Short history of the flower book
Hortus Eystettensis

Basilius Besler (1561-1629), a pharmacist from Nürnberg, who was very useful in arranging the garden, had been caused around 1600 by the Archbishop to start producing a flower-book, which should include all the flowers and herbals, which are in the Bishop's garden. Immediatelly he started in Nürnberg, supported by the bishop, producing his work, however the Bishop died November 1612 and the book was not finished at all.

Overview on the various editions of the Hortus Eystettensis

About autumn 1613 Basilus Besler finished his work and the first edition was published at Konrad Bauer in Altdorf near Nürnberg.
Also there had been published a 2nd and 3rd edition in 1613 and 1627, which were published without the permission of the archbishops of Eichstätt.
Besler did this edition without any new text, he made use of the type-setting of the first edition; in this way he was able to offer the book to a lower price, because of the enormous costs for printing and type-setting, he sold the first edition quite slowly.

In 1640 a 4th edition, or the real 2nd edition, with permission of the archbishops was published. It was published without any text, printed probably in "Ingolstadt" (near Eichstätt) in Bavaria (just at this time the town of Eichstätt had no own printing offices). For this edition paper with the watermark "snake", sometimes a "crown", was used.

In 1713 the real 3rd edition, with permission of the archbishops was published in Eichstätt and Nürnberg.
This was the so called "jubilee edition" exactly 100 years after its first publication.

Also a further edition about 1750 was published, again with text on the versos, the original copper-plates had been re-engraved (overworked) for this edition, because many of plates were already quite used up. For this edition paper with wide unusual margins was used.
We currently have a wide selection of plates from the 2nd edition 1640 and the Jubilee edition of 1713 on stock.

 

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