Flemish physician and botanist. Lille, 1538 - Highgate (London), 3 March 1616. After having visited Germany and Italy, he was registered on 22 May 1565 at the University of Montpellier, where he became a pupil of Rondelet and a friend of Petrus Pena, and where very likely he obtained his degree of doctor of medicine. Anyway, his interests in botany originated in Montpellier and with Pena he herborized in the Provence and the Cévennes. About 1569 he was in England, where in 1571 appeared his first study, the Stirpium adversaria nova. In 1571 or shortly afterwards he must have returned to the Netherlands, where he resided for many years in Antwerp as a physician, but continuing at the same time his botanical researches. After the capitulation of Antwerp in 1585 he went again to England, where he finished his days. Cf. Biographie Nationale [de Belgique], 5, 1876, Columns 452-466, Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, 5, 1921, Column 321; BB, III, pages 1128-1142. See also L. Legré, 'La botanique en Provence au XVIe siècle; Mathias de Lobel et Pierre Pena' in Bulletin de la Société botanique de France, 44, 1897, pages XI-XLVII; A.J.J. Van de Velde, 'De kruidboeken van Dodoens, Clusius en de Lobel' in Verslagen en Mededeelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamsche Academie, 1927, pages 13-41; A. Louis, 'Biografische gegevens over de botanicus Matthias de l'Obel (1538-1616)' in Biologisch Jaarboek…Dodonaea, 1957, pages 182-206; A. Louis, Historische gegevens over het 16e eeuwse herbarium Stirpium Adversaria nova van Pierre Pena en Mathias de l'Obel, Brussels, 1958 (Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Wetenschappen, XX, no. 9); Nationaal Biografisch Woordenboek, 2, 1966, Columns 643-648; A. Louis, Mathieu de l'Obel, 1538-1616. Episode de l'histoire de la botanique, Ghent-Louvain, 1980 (fundamental study). See also: Cordus, Dispensatorium sive pharmacorum conficiendorum ratio, 1580 (no. cp012564).