Lot 1358
[Besler, Basilius (1591-1629)] Barba Caprae. Scorsonera Latifolia. Copperplate engraving of black salsify and goatsbeard from the Hortus Eystettensis (Garden of Eichstätt), 19¾" x 16¾".Matted and framed to an overall size of 26" x 23". Fine; one faint horizontal fold.
In the early 1600s, Bishop Johann Konrad von Gemmingen commissioned Basilius Besler, an apothecary, chemist, and botanist in Nuremburg, to create a comprehensive botanical garden in Eichstät devoted to flowering plants, many of which were imported from the Americas and the Ottoman Empire. With a team of draftsmen and engravers, Basler documented the garden in all four seasons. Over 1,000 varieties of flowers are depicted in the 367 engraved and colored plates made from Basler's drawings, most of them showing the flowers in their actual size.
Latin descriptions were printed on the backs of the images and anticipated the use of binomial denominations, which would be made official by Carolus Linnaeus in 1753. The Hortus Eystettensis is the first collection of large-folio natural history botanicals. Two other editions were issued (1640 and 1713) with the same plates; we don't know which of the three editions contained the engraving offered here, but the copper plates were melted down in 1817 by the Royal Mint in Munich. The actual gardens were destroyed by Swedish troops in 1634, but a modern reconstruction of the original garden opened to the public in Eichstätt in 1998.
Estimated Value $1,500 - 2,000.
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