Half-price: 4x Heritage Editions Besler large flower prints

$96.00

4 great reproduction prints: 4 Tulip bulbs, 5 Tulip bulbs, Lilium bulb (Lily & Centaurium), and Roses with decorative descriptive script and roots and bulbs full of character.

Four large Heritage Editions prints on paper – reproduced from superb hand-coloured copperplate engravings by the Nuremberg apothecary (pharmacist) Basilius Besler (1562-1629), for his Hortus Eystettensis, the first great ‘florilegium’ to be published, and probably the most impressive and extensive botanical work ever produced. Besler illustrated 1086 plants in 368 large, hand-coloured copperplate engravings, – published by Basilius Besler and Ludwig Jungermann in Nuremberg between 1561 and 1613, to commemorate the celebrated gardens of Besler’s patron, the ruling bishop, Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, Prince Bishop of Eichstatt, who financed the enormous project.

While in charge of the bishop’s gardens, in 1586 Besler took over the pharmacy at the Nuremberg hay market, and set up his own botanic gardens. With an extensive collection of natural history specimens, he soon became known as a botanist and collector of specimens.

The picture does not do justice to the quality of these four wonderful reproduction prints that measure approximately 47 x 37cm.