Hand-colored copper engraving (495x483 mm). Excellent specimen with good margins. Basilius Besler (1561-1629), botanist and pharmacist, published Hortus Eystettensis in Eichstätt near Nuremberg in 1613. It is an illustrated herbarium of extraordinary beauty. the hatching and chiaroscuro effect of the engraving give the plants plasticity and three-dimensionality. They are arranged in an elegant, artistic manner, showing their most aesthetic side. Furthermore, it depicts the roots of the plants as they really are, in detail, with such emphasis that one wonders if he had embraced Cesalpino's theory, which said that the shape of the human body could be seen upside down in plants. The plates were subsequently watercolored by skilled colorists. Besler's patient work was undertaken over a period of sixteen years, using as models for his drawings the plants in the garden of Bishop-Prince Johann Konrad Von Gemmingen, for whom he worked, and which he transformed into an example of ornamental beauty. The refined 374 plates (with accompanying text arranged in chronological order from spring to autumn based on flowering times) were engraved by a team of renowned engravers, including Heinrich Ulrich. Made in copper etching, in imperial folio from the author's original drawings, they depict 1084 flowering plants, herbs, and vegetables, including those from new geographical discoveries, such as tobacco, pepper, and other spices. Besler was a botanist and horticulturist, aware of the medicinal properties of various plants, and he was also fortunate to live in the right period of great discoveries, when exotic plants were arriving in Europe from all over the world. The Hortus Eystettensis, a magnificent anthology from the early 17th century, is therefore a rich inventory of the wonders of nature in a seasonal guide and marks a decisive transition in engraving technique in botanical works, from woodcut to intaglio.