263
1057 [Natural history]
-
BESLER, Michaël Rupert
- Gazophylacium rerum naturalium e regno
vegetabili, animali et minerali depromptarum, nunquam hactenus in lucem editarum, fidelis cum
figuris aeneis ad vivum incisis repraesentatio opera Michaelis Ruperti Besleri medici et reipublicae
Norib. physici ordinarii et officinarum pharmaceuticarum p.t. visitatoris senioris. [Nürnberg, s.n.],
1642, folio, later blind paper binding, engr. title and 33 (of 34) unnumbered engr. plates (some
worm holes on the inner margin not touching the images, lower margins cut a little short, touching
2 images).
Cfr. ill.
€
2000/3000
Very rare 1st edition
of natural history objects and antiques of the “Wunderkammer” of the brothers
Basil (1561-1629) and Hieronymus (1566-1632) Besler. This “protomuseum” was inherited and
enriched by Basil's nephew, the Nürnberg physician and pharmacist Michaël Rupert Besler (1607-
1661). This “treasury of natural things from the vegetable, animal and mineral kindoms” contains
birds, shells (some delicately carved), corals, minerals and typical Wunderkammer artefacts such
as a unicorn horn, several “Archimboldo” grotesque of shells, antique coins and pretty polished
marble slabs, along whith such unica as the sword of the Bohemian knight Johann Zisca (c. 1378-
1424; leader of the Hussites). Many rare plants and birds are figured along with ethnographic
objects such as a Brazilian Indian girdle made from the nuts of the Brazilian tree Cerbera ahovai.
The image of this plate was used for the border of Valentini's Museum museorum (Frankfurt 1714).
Besler was a Nürnberg virtuoso scholar-collector. He also assembled an important collection of art
and antiquities. The present plates were reissued in 1716 and 1733. In this 1st edition there is no
further text, other than the (sometimes extensive) plate captions. This copy is printed on blue proof
paper and
before letters and numbers
. Only the last plate (pl. 13 in copies with numbering) bound
in is on white paper. Pl. 14, with the intestines of the wolf, is not present here. This suggests that
initially the plates were printed and perhaps distributed in a more random order and that this copy
was bound before the work was truly finished.
Ref.
Cobres p. 102 n. 10. Nissen ZBI 346. Pritzel 747.
Hunt 238.
1058
