had gone to Napier, and Bürgi’s own role remained unrec-
ognized until relatively recent times.
Burgkmair, Hans (1473–1531) German painter and print
maker
Born at Augsburg, Burgkmair received his initial training
from his father, and between 1488 and 1490 studied with
Martin SCHONGAUERin Colmar. On his return to Augsburg
(1490) he designed woodcuts for the printer RATDOLTand
assisted HOLBEIN THE ELDERwith portraits and altarpieces.
In 1498 he was admitted to the Augsburg guild. Burgk-
mair traveled to Cologne in 1503 and in about 1507 vis-
ited northern Italy, including Venice and Lucca. His
portraits, such as the Sebastian Brant in Karlsruhe, are re-
markable for their realism and psychological intensity.
Classicizing architectural motifs of Italian derivation ap-
pear in his altarpieces, such as the Nuremberg Virgin and
Child (1509). Burgkmair was a prolific designer of wood-
cuts, executing the largest part of the Triumphal Procession
of the Emperor Maximilian and the Weisskunig. As a print
maker he is important as a pioneer of the multicolored
chiaroscuro woodcut.
Busbecq, Ogier Ghislain de (c. 1520–1591) Flemish
diplomat
Born at Comines (Komen) in the Spanish Netherlands
(now on the Franco-Belgian border), he studied at the
University of Leuven in the 1530s, then at Paris, Venice,
Bologna, and Padua. He began his diplomatic career by
acompanying the representative of Ferdinand of Austria
(later Holy Roman Emperor FERDINAND I) to England for
the marriage of Mary I to Philip II of Spain (1554). The
same year Ferdinand appointed him his ambassador to
Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent at the Ottoman Porte,
where he remained nearly seven years (1555–62); his ef-
forts to check Ottoman expansionism by means of diplo-
macy eventually resulted in a satisfactory treaty. He was
knighted for his achievements and spent the remainder of
his life in the imperial diplomatic service, dying in France
while personal representative of RUDOLF IIat the French
court.
Busbecq wrote four letters about his Turkish mission
which, despite their purported dates (1554, 1555, 1560,
1562), were probably composed after 1579. The first edi-
tion was published under the title Itinera Constantinopoli-
tanum et Amasianum (Travels to Constantinople and
Amasya) by Christopher Plantin of Antwerp (1581); this
contained only the first letter and Busbecq’s small treatise
Exclamatio, sive de re militari contra Turcam instituenda
consilium (Appeal, or plan for waging war on the Turks),
written in 1576. Plantin added the second letter to the sec-
ond edition of 1582; letters three and four first appeared
in the 1589 Paris edition. Busbecq was an open admirer of
many aspects of Ottoman military and administrative or-
ganization. An accomplished linguist, he wrote elegant
Latin and took an interest in a wide range of topics: an-
tiquities, numismatics, flora and fauna, and the now ex-
tinct East Germanic language of Crimean Gothic. He is
popularly, but wrongly, credited with having introduced
the tulip, a flower much admired at the Ottoman court,
into western Europe.
Further reading: The Turkish Letters of Ogier Ghiselin
de Busbecq, Imperial Ambassador at Constantinople
1554–1562, transl. and abridged by Edward Seymour
Forster (Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon Press, 1927; new ed.
London: Sickle Moon Books, 2001).Butinone, Bernardino See ZENALE, BERNARD(IN)OBuxtorf, Johannes (I) (1564–1629) German Hebrew
scholar
The son of a Protestant minister, Buxtorf was born at and
studied at Marburg and later at Geneva and Basle under
BEZA. For 38 years from 1591 he occupied the chair of He-
brew at Basle, rejecting attractive offers from Saumur and
Leyden. To the study of Hebrew Buxtorf brought rabbini-
cal learning acquired from the many scholarly Jews whom
he befriended. His main works had an educational pur-
pose: a number of elementary grammars and readers, a
Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon (1607), and a Hebrew reference
grammar (1609). He also produced an edition of the Bible
with rabbinic commentary and the Chaldean paraphrases
(1618–19). His son, Johannes II (1599–1664), followed
him as professor of Hebrew at Basle and completed his fa-
ther’s Lexicon Chaldaicum Talmudicum et rabbinicum
(1639), which provided a scientific basis for the study of
postbiblical Jewish writings.Byrd, William (1543–1623) English composer
Although possibly born in Lincoln, Byrd at an early age
became a pupil of TALLISin London. He was organist and
master of the choristers at Lincoln cathedral (1563–72)
and became a gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1570. In
London Byrd’s patrons included the earls of Worcester and
Northumberland. With Tallis, Byrd was granted a crown
patent for the printing and selling of part music and lined
music paper; together they issued Cantiones, quae ab argu-
mento sacrae vocantur (1575), which comprised Latin
motets by both composers and was dedicated to the
queen. In the 1580s, as a known recusant (see RECU-
SANCY), Byrd suffered considerable yearly fines, though he
was granted certain concessions, probably because the
queen favored his music. In 1587, after the death of Tallis,
Byrd was left in sole possession of their patent, and with
the printer Thomas East dominated English music print-
ing until the expiration of the patent nine years later.
Among Byrd’s publications at this time were Psalmes,
Sonets and Songs (1588), Songs of Sundrie Natures (1589),
and Cantiones sacrae (1589). In the 1590s and 1600s Byrd
wrote music for Catholic services; notable from this pe-BByyrrdd,, WWiilllliiaamm 7777