bavarikon4UHortus Eystettensis
The Hortus Eystettensis is one of the most famous books of plants. After many years of work, it was published in the year 1613. Unlike the authors of similar works, the Nuremberg apothecary and botanist Basilius Besler who designed the Hortus Eystettensis did not aim to produce a scientific book of plants, but wanted instead to create an elaborate work that would be an object of prestige.
Producing the book was time consuming and costly. Besler had plants taken to Nuremberg where they were drawn by experienced illustrators and engraved onto copper plates. He chose to print the book in an unusually large format (57x46cm), with one or more species depicted on each page. At the express wish of Prince Bishop Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, who had died while the book was still in preparation, Besler was required to include comments in Latin with references to earlier academic literature.
Two versions were initially printed: a special edition in which the illustrated plates were only printed on one side, and a simpler edition that was intended for general sale in which the reverse of each plate was also printed with text. Binding the large individual pages was a challenge for both versions: the plates containing the images and texts had to be arranged in the right order, pasted onto a guard, and bound together to form the body of the book. It is believed that the special editions were always hand colored. The double-sided edition could be colored at the customer’s request, as could a third version without comments that the enterprising Besler also managed to publish in 1613.
Curiously, it appears that no complete colored first editions survived in Eichstätt itself. In any case, the three-volume copy in the town’s seminary library was purchased at auction in England at the end of the 19th century. Today this work is the centerpiece of a collection of around 200 books on herbs and plants dating from the 15th to the early 20th century that is housed in the University Library in Eichstätt.
>> This collection is part of the inventory of the University Library Eichstätt-Ingolstadt.