Emanuel Sweert (1552-1612) was an artist and a dealer in object d’art in Amsterdam and carried amongst his stock rare and curious plants. At the time rare flowers were highly collected and his artistic skills enabled this work to come to fruition. The ‘Florilegium Amplissimum et Selectissimum’ was originally published as a working catalogue. It was in two parts, the first devoted to bulbous plants with the second to various other plants. It is one of the most attractive and popular of the early Florilegia. Sweert corresponded widely with other botanists and there is even a white iris named after him – Iris sweertii. Not in Dunthorne; Hunt (1958) 196; Nissen BBI (1966) 1920; ‘Oak Spring Flora’ (1997) p. 43.