John Zsamboki, Sambucus

* Nagyszombat, June 1, 1531 – † Vienna, June 13, 1584 / humanist historian, physician, cartographer ; ; He studied in Vienna, Wittenberg, Strasbourg, and Paris. In Padua in 1553 he studied medicine at the expense of Nicholas Oláh, in 1557 he became a university professor in Bologna, and from 1564 he was the court physician and historian of Emperors Maximus and Rudolf in Vienna. He was one of the outstanding representatives of the Danube philological humanism. He had close relations with French and German scholars and writers. He wrote and spoke in many languages. Based on the vast material of his manuscript and book collection, known throughout Europe – which was placed in the Vienna National Library – he conducted textual critical research. In addition to his smaller monographic works, he published several valuable source works. Thus, the most complete edition of Janus Pannonius (1569), Ransanus' Hungarian historical work (1558), and a supplement to the complete Bonfini edition were written. By publishing historical works related to Hungary, he did a significant service to the country's foreign acquaintance. He corresponded with French, German and Swiss scholars, and published more than 50 of his works in Basel and Antwerp. He wrote in Latin the successful repulse of the sieges of Eger in 1552 and Szigetvár in 1556, the fall of Timisoara and the capture of Tokaj by Lázár Schwendi. We also consider him a poet who wrote in Latin, but his greatest success was undoubtedly his collection of emblems (Emblemata, Antwerp, 1564), which has been published in numerous editions. He also made merit in the field of publishing Hungarian laws: he published István Werbőczy's Tripartitum, but also prepared a map of Hungary (his 1566 map of Transylvania was a Hungarian-written, supplemented, and improved version of the work of Johannes Honterus, and his 1571 map of Hungary was a student Lázár's work, with Hungarian spelling). His death was caused by a cerebral hemorrhage. ; ; His main works: Emblemata, Cum Aliquot Nummis Antiqui Operis, 1564 (several further editions were published in the following years, including in French).