Caspar Commelin, Dutch physician, botanist, and professor, was the nephew of Jan Commelin, a spice merchant instrumental in the growth of the Amsterdam botanical garden. This garden, like so many others, began as a physic garden. Descriptions of plants by Jan Commelin saw print in the work completed by his nephew.

With the support of an enlightened patron, the Swiss botanist Johann Bauhin established botanical gardens in Montéliard and Stuttgart and pursued his botanical research. Much influenced by Conrad Gesner, his teacher and friend, Bauhin undertook an ambitious collaborative work on descriptive bibliography. This encyclopedic work, which reflected the great increase in botanical knowedge in the 16th and early 17th century, first appeared in print 37 years after Bauhin's death. The extent of Cherler's true contribution to the publication (he was Bauhin's son-in-law) has been disputed.

Where Johann Bauhin's work contained accurate descriptions of plants from the Far East and the New World as well as those found in Europe, his brother Caspar's Pinax theatri botanici (1623) contained only names and synonyms. The latter work is cited in the "Other Metaphors" section of this exhibit.

The Austrian-born Bauer worked first under Jacquin in Vienna, then took a post as artist at the Royal Gardens at Kew. He thought the massive plates in his book were "detailed enough for any botanist to look at and understand. ." His brother, Ferdinand Lucas Bauer, who had also worked for Jacquin, was engaged by John Sibthorp, professor of botany at Oxford, to produce the watercolors for Sibthorp's impressive Flora graeca (published 1806-1840).

During his medical studies in Vienna, Jacquin came to the attention of the emperor, and was sent to the West Indies to collect plants for the Hapbsurg park of Schönbrunn.

The Flemish naturalist Charles de L'Ecluse [Clusius] directed the botanical garden of Leiden and held the chair of botany at the University of Leiden from 1593 until his death. His fruitful collaboration with the renowned Plantin publishing firm permitted him to issue late-breaking discoveries in natural history and to ornament his texts with elaborate engravings. The copies of the two works listed here were owned by a Php Miller, perhaps the Philip Miller who was curator of the Chelsea Physic Garden.

The botanical garden at the University of Bologna was founded in 1567 and first directed by the physician and natural historian Ulisse Aldrovandi. Giacomo Zanoni served as the superintendant of the Bologna garden a century later, and published in 1675 his Istoria botanica, which included descriptions of many plants in the garden. Gaetano Monti, who would direct the garden in the latter part of the 18th century, translated Zanoni's work and enlarged upon it in the work cited here.

Sir William Jackson Hooker, not to be confused with William Hooker the botanical artist, was well-established as a botanist when he was appointed regius professor of botany at the University of Glasgow. He more than doubled the number of species in the Glasgow botanical garden, and was knighted for his services to botany.