Hortus Eystettensis,

£300,000 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

the first great florilegium First edition of the first great florilegium, 'one of the greatest flower books ever produced in any country' (de Belder), printed in an edition of only 300 copies. Complete examples (as here) are rare, with only five copies appearing in recent auction records, at Sothebys in 1984, 2000, and 2004, and Christie's in 2008 and 2022. The Hortus Eystettensis was overseen by Nuremberg apothecary Basil Besler, who had been put in charge of the celebrated garden of Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, Prince Bishop of Eichstätt. Gemmingen spent three thousand florins on the book's production, which took sixteen years, with Besler himself making the drawings and a number of engravers employed, including Wolfgang Kilian, Raphael Custos, and Friedrich van Hulsen. The final result is 'splended in its array of large drawings, magnificent as a record of the plants in a German garden in the beginning of the seventeenth century' and 'notable among the plates is the two-storied treatment of the Martagon Lily' (Hunt Botanical Catalogue 430). The contents are divided by season and depict over 1,000 flowers of 667 different species, many of which are exotics appearing in print for the first time. In addition to flowers, numerous types of fruits and vegetables are depicted, including melons, tomatoes, artichokes, eggplants, peppers, and prickly pears. Bibliographically, the Hortus Eystettensis is unusual. Though typically described as a large or atlas folio, it is actually a v

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.