Marsh Marigold, with Companions
Three spring bloomers from the same page of a prince-bishop’s garden book.
- Work
- Caltha palustris flore multiplici, with Gentianella and Viola, from Hortus Eystettensis
- Artist / naturalist
- Basilius Besler
- Origin & date
- Nuremberg, 1613
- Held by
- Wikimedia Commons
Format
The full-resolution scan, color-managed to the source — yours to print, study, and keep.
Size
$19.00
The story
Another plate from Basilius Besler's Hortus Eystettensis (1613), grouping three plants that would have flowered together in the Eichstätt garden's early spring beds: a double-flowered marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) at center, flanked by a small pink gentianella and a violet. Besler's engravers worked from specimens grown on-site, and his habit of grouping companion plants on a single plate — rather than isolating one species per page — makes each plate read partly as a planting record, a snapshot of what actually stood next to what. What to notice: the marigold's root system is drawn in full, an unusual level of documentary honesty for a book whose primary purpose was closer to a luxury coffee-table catalog than a scientific flora — evidence Besler's engravers took the underlying botany as seriously as the spectacle.
About this reproduction
- Faithful reproduction of a public-domain work, sourced from Wikimedia Commons’s open-access release.
- Printed to order on 200gsm EMA matte art paper: smooth, no glare.
- Color-managed to the source scan.
- Ships in 5–8 business days; satisfaction guarantee.
From the same naturalist
