Basilius Besler (Born 1591) was born and raised in Nuremberg. He was a respected botanist and apothecary during the reign of Bishop Conrad Johann von Gemmingen, and was in charge of the bishop’s garden. In 1586 he set up his own botanical garden. Besler set up a comprehensive collection of natural history specimens and people in the area soon knew him as a collector of natural history specimens and a botanist. His collection became the center of attraction for many viewers, students and teachers. It became on the leading collections in Nuremberg. In 1597 he was instructed by the bishop of Eichstätt to create a botanical garden in Willibaldsburg Castle. Twelve years later, he wrote a description of this garden and produced "Hortus Eystettensis", the famous plant atlas that was published in 1613 and printed in large format. The bishop financed it.
The atlas contains more than 1000 illustrations of plants from about 400 copperplate engravings. Most of the plants were depicted in their natural size. Besler was no scientist and so he limited himself to indicating where information about each plant could be found in professional writings (Clusius, Camerarius, Fuchs, Cauhin, Lobelius, Tabernaemontanus, etc.). He also gave the plants' old German and Latin names. The work depicts 23 American, 209 southeastern and southern- European, 349 German, 9 African and 63 Asian species. It was first published in a 300 piece edition and was the most modern book on plants of its time, in 1613. His work continues to attract attention of people from all quotas.
