Dürer's Lost Masterpiece

Gemmingen came from an old Swabian aristocratic family. Born in 1569, he had travelled and studied extensively in England, France and Italy in his youth and was deeply disturbed by the violent fighting between Protestants and Catholics during the French Wars of Religion. In 1595, at the age of twenty-six, he was consecrated to the prestigious and lucrative office of prince-bishop. A prince-bishop was the head of a territory and its church, and thus one of the political leaders of Germany. But Eichstätt's small territory was wedged between powerful neighbours belonging to different religious camps. To the east lay Catholic Bavaria, to the west Lutheran Franconia. The prince-bishop had to settle disputes over territorial rights, further consolidate his territory and avoid siding with the Catholic League - a military alliance founded in July 1609 and strengthened by powerful and wealthy leaders in February 1610. A group of Lutheran and Calvinist cities and territories had first formed a Protestant Union in 1608. They felt that the mechanisms for resolving conflicts at the Imperial Diet, Germany's main political summit, no longer seemed workable. Religious tensions seemed to be growing. Duke Maximilian of Bavaria had been trying to persuade von Gemmingen to join the Catholic League since 1608. However, von Gemmingen tried to avoid membership of the League, fearing immediate retribution from his Protestant neighbours in the event of war.

While walking this tightrope of neutrality, the bishop decided to demonstrate his power through wealth and by promoting a love of the arts. His garden became an experience for visitors from all religions. He hoped the book would capture this experience forever on the page. Every week the Nuremberg pharmacist Basilius Besler received one or two boxes of fresh flowers from Eichstätt, when they were at their best. Among them were five hundred varieties of tulips in different colours. To have the Hortus Eystettensis, his garden in Eichstätt, engraved would cost him 3,000 guilders - he would end up paying more than twice as much, and the total cost of producing these magnificent folios would eventually amount to over 17,000 guilders. Measuring over half a metre high, they were printed in small numbers on the largest size of paper available. Each illuminated version was printed on even more special paper and cost 500 guilders, so much that even book lovers fell over when they heard the price. A far more affordable black and white edition (originally priced at 35 florins) was still breath-taking, showcasing the best techniques of botanical drawing and contemporary engraving in alluring variety, a joint production of Nuremberg draughtsmen and Augsburg engravers in the renowned workshop of Wolfgang Kilian, who translated the coloured drawings into their art of the black line. Turning each of the 367 pages was an exhilarating experience, inviting prolonged study and contemplation.  Ten per cent of the plants were Asian, some were African and American, and a third came from the Mediterranean. Many of the exotic plants, including tulips, had been imported via Amsterdam. The tulips encouraged new experiments in colour variation.

Besler was fastidious in his instructions to illuminators, telling them which tones and shades to emulate, which meant experimenting with new mixtures of pigments. He commissioned the Nuremberg master Georg Mack to illuminate the first seventy copies of the Hortus. These are now among the most valuable early books ever printed. The eagerly awaited Garden Book was published in 1613. The Bishop of Eichstätt died in November 1612. Maximilian of Bavaria triumphed: van Gemmingen's successor would not hesitate to join the Catholic League. Troops destroyed the garden during the Thirty Years' War. The Bishop's Book remains a testimony to a vision of peace motivated by a deep contemplation of the beauty of nature throughout the world.