The "Theatrum Florae" was originally published in Paris in 1622, with later editions in 1627 and 1633, and was a collection of botanical illustrations of 69 of the most striking plants then available, and which Rabel had been commissioned to paint for Gaston of Orléans. Other artists later added their work, notably Nicolas Robert (1614–1685). The plates eventually numbered over 6000 and are kept in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. There is some doubt among scholars as to whether Rabel engraved the original 69 plates, as none of them is signed and his name only appears on the title of the third edition. By the end of the 1700s they were generally assumed to have been done by Emanuel Sweert.
