Basilius Besler (1561–1629) was a respected Nuremberg apothecary and botanist, best known for his monumental florilegium, the Hortus Eystettensis (lit.

[1]Besler established a pharmacy, Zum Marienbild, at Nuremberg's Hay Market in 1589, and developed his own botanical garden and collection of specimens, for which he became well known.

These gardens had been started in 1596 and designed by Besler's colleague, Joachim Camerarius the Younger (1534–1598), a physician and botanist.

The gardens were ransacked by invading Swedish troops under Herzog Bernhard von Weimar in 1633-4, but were reconstructed and opened to the public of Eichstätt in 1998.

[2] Besler did not consider himself scientist, but rather relied on the extant literature of his time including Camerarius, Clusius, Fuchs, Tabernaemontanus and Lobelius, but his work predated the introduction of many overseas plants to Germany.