Rariora Musei Besleriani quae olim Basilius et Michael Rupertus Besleri collegerunt... 

FIRST EDITION, [22], 112pp., engraved portrait frontispiece, title in red and black, 40 engraved folding plates, woodcut initials, dead-and tailpieces, occasional light foxing, later half calf over contemporary marbled boards, folio, [Nuremberg], 1716

This work catalogues the natural history collections of Basil Besler (1561-1629) and his nephew Michael Rupert (1607-1661), both Nuremberg apothecaries. The collection was one of the first such private museums in Germany. Basil Besler published two rare suites of engravings, in 1616 and 1622, illustrating his cabinet, and Michael Rupert published in 1642 his Gazophylacium rerum naturalium devoted to his own additions to the collection. Lochner utilised the 24 plates from the 1616 suite, and added 16 further plates some of which derive from the 1662 suite and the 1642 Gazophylacium, and some depicting further objects not previously illustrated. In addition, he has written a detailed descriptive text and a history of the collection. Six plates, entitled Fructus, show various seeds and fruit; four larger plates follow, one with a Brazilian indian seed-girdle, unusual roots including ginseng, etc, one with a group of aquatic birds, one with birds-of-paradise, toucans and hornbills, and one devoted to unusual animal horns; four plates, entitled Animalia, include an armadillo, crocodiles, an iguana and chameleon, snakes, etc.; these are followed by a larger plate with a hammerhead shark, a dracaena, a ray, etc; six plates, entitled Marina and two Conchilia depict various wonders of the sea, including 3 nautilus shells; a larger plate features various ‘Archimboldo’ shell grotesques; the remaining 17 plates, 14 of which are entitled Lapides, with two larger untitled plates, are devoted to various stones, minerals, fossils, corals, etc.

[Cobres 102 n. 9; Nissen ZBI, 348; Wood 439]