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Basilus Besler
Basil Besler was an Nuremberg apothecary and botanist. He was curator of the garden for the Prince Bishop Eichstatt in Bavaria. The gardens surrounded the bishop's palace built on a hill overlooking the town. Besler compiled an illustrated work on the plants growing in the garden, a task which took sixteen years to complete. He hired a group of skilled draughtsmen and engravers to create the copper plates. When the work was printed in 1613, Besler's portrait appears on the frontispiece holding a spring of basil.
