When Prince-Bishop Johann Konrad von Gemmingen (1593/95-1612) undertook a radical renovation of the Willibaldsburg Castle, overlooking the Altm-hl River in Eichst-, Bavaria, he also created a surrounding palatial pleasure garden of magnificence and grandeur. To preserve the garden for future generations - and provide an -evergreen- record of its contents, compiling plants from all four seasons and presenting them in that order - he commissioned the garden-s director, Nuremberg apothecary Basilius Besler (1561-1629), and a team of engravers to immortalize its treasures in print.
The resulting Hortus Eystettensis, published in Nuremberg in 1613 and containing 367 hand-colored plates and detailed descriptions, was a work of meticulous execution and spectacular diversity, and remarkably expensive for its time. As the garden contained a variety of plants imported from exotic locales, the three volumes exhibited a remarkable range, covering a total of 90 families and 340 genera
