Geissler was born in 1729 in
Augsburg. He moved to
Geneva in about 1771 where he became a citizen of that Republic. He was the son of Adam Geissler, a garden designer. Geissler is probably best known for his illustrating of
Tabulae Phytographicae, an encyclopaedic work published by the
Zürich naturalist
Johannes Gessner (1709-1790), whose natural history collection Geissler also depicted. Between 1744 and 1749 Geissler was an apprentice of the Augsburg miniaturist,
Samuel Baumeister. He subsequently went to
Nuremberg where he helped to illustrate
Franz Michael Regenfuss's work
Choix de Coquillages et de Crustacés. In 1753 he travelled to Zürich to join Gessner in the production of the 24-part
Tabulae Phytographicae, which first appeared in 1795. Following this he moved to Geneva where he worked with the enamel painter Süß, and founded a school of drawing and worked as a copperplate engraver. He died in Geneva on 2 November 1814. ==References==