The later sixteenth-century herbalists owed much to the famous herbalists of the Netherlands, and above all to that prince amongst publishers, Christophe Plantin of Antwerp, whose personality secured him a unique place in the literary world. Indeed, there is a splendour about the works of the Flemish herbalists unequalled by any others of this period, with the exception of the Bavarian doctor Leonhard Fuchs. There is no comparison between them and the Italian herbalists of the Renaissance, who, for the greater part, devoted themselves to studying the classical writers and identifying the plants mentioned by the old authorities. France, curiously enough, contributed comparatively little when the herbal was at its zenith, though it must of course be remembered that the Bauhins, who rank as Swiss herbalists, were of French extraction. But it is difficult to estimate the influence of the works of those three notable friends, Rembert Dodoens, Charles de l'Escluse and Matthias de l'Obel, particularly on the English herbalists. The most famous English herbal--Gerard's--is virtually a translation of the _Pemptades_ of Dodoens. Lyte's translation of the _Cruÿdtboeck_ was the standard work on herbs during the latter part of the century, and Parkinson incorporated a large part of de l'Obel's unfinished book in his _Theatrum Botanicum_. De l'Obel, after whom the little garden flower--lobelia--is named, spent the greater part of his life in England. He was a Fleming by birth and a doctor by profession,[71] and he was physician to William the Silent until his assassination. About 1569 he came over to England (with his friend Pena, who at one time was physician to Louis XIII.) and lived at Highgate with his son-in-law. He superintended Lord Zouche's garden at Hackney, and later was given the title of botanist to James I. L'Obel's great work, written in collaboration with Pena, was the _Stirpium Adversaria Nova_, printed in London by Thomas Purfoot in 1571.[72] Pulteney, in his _Biographical Sketches_ (1790), makes the extraordinary statement that Christophe Plantin of Antwerp was the real printer. It has, however, been pointed out by modern authorities that the archives of the Plantin Museum show that Plantin bought 800 copies of Purfoot's edition, with the wood blocks, for 1320 florins. In 1576 Plantin published de l'Obel's _Plantarum seu Stirpium historia_, and to this he appended the first part of the _Adversaria_, keeping Purfoot's original colophon.