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...
Estimation :
2000 / 3000
Adjudication :
4000 €
Description
reipublicae Norib. physici ordinarii et officinarum pharmaceuticarum p.t. visitatoris senioris. 1642Nürnberg,s.n.,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).
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.
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.
