Basilius Besler

Basilius Besler (1561 to 1629) was a Nuremberg apothecary and botanist, best known for the Hortus Eystettensis, the monumental florilegium of 1613 that records the plants of the garden at Eichstätt. Born in Nuremberg, he opened his own pharmacy, Zum Marienbild, at the Hay Market in 1589, built a botanical garden and a collection of specimens, and sat on the city council from 1594. The prince-bishop of Eichstätt, Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, made him curator of the bishop's garden, which had been laid out by the physician Joachim Camerarius the Younger, and in 1611 commissioned him to compile a codex of its plants. The task took sixteen years. Besler drew on Camerarius, Clusius, Fuchs and Lobelius rather than claiming to be a scientist himself, and he indexed the plants by Latin and old German names. The plant genus Besleria was named for him by Plumier.