Basilius Besler's copper plate botanical
engravings along with Redoute and Dr. Thornton, represent some
of the most important examples of botanical illustration ever
produced. This magnificent work was an ecclesiastical commission
to record all the plants in the gardens of the the Prince Bishop
of Eichstatt. This work is important as the first large folio
botanical as well as the earliest pictorial record of flowers
in a single garden.