Basilius Besler

Basilius Besler (1561 to 1629) was an apothecary and botanist of Nuremberg. He was born in the city on 13 February 1561, and in 1589 he established a pharmacy, Zum Marienbild, at the Hay Market, where he also developed his own botanical garden and collection of specimens, for which he became well known. He was elected to the city council in 1594. He later served as curator of the garden at Eichstätt belonging to Johann Konrad von Gemmingen, Prince-bishop of Eichstätt, and after the death of the physician and botanist Joachim Camerarius the Younger in 1598 he moved the remainder of Camerarius' plants there and carried on the planting and supervision. In 1611 the bishop commissioned him to compile a record of the garden's plants, which appeared in 1613 as the Hortus Eystettensis, a large-format florilegium indexed by both Latin and old German names. The article says Besler did not consider himself a scientist and relied on the existing literature of his time. He died in Nuremberg on 13 March 1629, and the genus Besleria was named for him.