Basilius Besler

Basilius Besler, Basil Besler also (* February 13, 1561 in Nuremberg, † March 13, 1629 ) was a German chemist, botanist and publisher. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Besler ".

Life

Besler operated the pharmacy "At the image of Mary " in Nuremberg and had its own botanical garden and a natural history collection.

1597 commissioned him the Bishop of Eichstätt, Johann Konrad von Gemmingen with the investment of a botanical garden on the grounds of Willibaldsburg. On a site with a size of about one hectare he put on eight terraces on the garden. He used it to support the botanist Joachim Camerarius, Louis Young man and Carolus Clusius, who had already created the residence garden in Vienna. The garden at Eichstätt was famous soon widely.

The plants in the garden were Eichstätter starting point for the famous Hortus Eystettensis ( published in Eichstätt and Nuremberg, 1613 ), a book of plants of the Baroque, was entrusted with the publication of which Besler. In the book, a total of 1084 plants are treated at 367 engravings on 850 pages. As Besler was not himself a botanist, he had won as a co-author Louis Young Man. His work is one of the great treasures of botanical literature.

Ehrentaxon

Charles Plumier named in his honor, the genus of the plant family Besleria the Gesneriad ( Gesneriaceae ). Linnaeus later took the name.