Sign In

János Zsámboky was a Hungarian physician, philologist, poet, polymath, collector and editor of important manuscripts on Hungarian history, and also an author of historical works.

 Zsamboky was born at Nagyszombat (now called Trnava in Slovakia) into a wealthy family. In Vienna in 1542 he graduated, and went on to study philology, ancient languages, law, history, and philosophy in Leipzig, Wittenberg, Ingolstadt, Strasbourg, and Paris where he obtained a master's degree in philosophy in 1551. From 1558 to 1564 he traveled to Venice, Padua, Genoa, Naples, Milan, Ghent, and Antwerp . At the University of Padua, he turned to the study of medicine, becoming the Medical Licentiate in 1555. In 1560 he returned to Vienna, settling down as a physician and leading exponent of scientific and cultural knowledge.

During a trip to Padua he studied medicine and qualified as a physician, a position he held at court on his return to Hungary. Zsamboky wrote the first Hungarian Emblemata, a book containing images with linked texts (the emblems') that were intended to inspire the reader to reflect on a particular moral lesson. His book was published in 1564 and was published through five editions and was translated into French and Dutch.  

1581 saw the publication of the first edition of Sambucus' Corpus Iuris Hungarici. The principles contained therein, based on legal strictures of antiquity, contributed to the foundations of the modern day Hungarian legal system.

Sambucus was appointed the court physician of Emperor Maximilian II, as well as the Imperial Council and Hofhistoriograf . From this he obtained a considerable fortune, with which he amassed the largest private library in the world. The library contained numerous previously unknown ancient and contemporary Greek and Latin manuscripts, for instance: Janus Pannonius and Antonio BONFINI, whose texts he partially edited or through his influence supplied patronage to. He also published several maps and geographical descriptions, e.g. "Hungaria", "Transilvaniae Descriptio" and "Illirium", and sometimes wrote Latin poems. Along with his library, he had a large coin and art collection.

Sambucus influenced numerous personalities of the humanistic spirit of his time, many by letter correspondence. He died on June 13, 1584 in Vienna. A plaque commemorates his life at his residence, Singer street in the 1st, House No. 3.

Sambucus' collection of books, maps, coins, and art formed the basis for the manuscript collection of the Austrian National Library .