BURCHARD, JOHANN. – Papal Master of Ceremonies, liturgist, and historian, born at Nieder-Haslach (Alsace) in 1450, died at Rome on 16 May 1506. He came to Rome in 1467 in search of fortune, first serving various cardinals, then becoming a familiar of Sixtus IV (c. 1475), from whom he obtained various ecclesiastical benefices and high curial offices, such as Apostolic Protonotary (1481) and Master of Ceremonies (1483), a post he held until his death, even after becoming bishop of the united dioceses of Civita Castellana and Orte (1503–1506). A skilled liturgist, he was practical in his office, a keen observer, but also avaricious. In Rome he built himself a house, the Torre Argentina, so named from his native Strasbourg (Argentoratum). He was also rector of the German national church of Santa Maria dell’Anima in Rome and was buried in Santa Maria del Popolo.
He published, together with Agostino Patrizi, the Liber pontificalis, i.e., the Roman Pontifical (Rome 1485; reprinted in a second edition with Giacomo De Luciis, ibid. 1487). His principal liturgical work is the Ordo servandus per sacerdotem in celebratione Missae (Rome 1495, printed by Stefano Planok [cf. L. Hain, Repert. bibl., no. 4102]; reprinted in Rome 1502 and frequently thereafter under various titles), the substance of which entered the Roman Missal as the General Rubrics and the Rite for Celebrating Mass. Much liturgical material for use in the Papal Curia is also scattered throughout his celebrated work Diario della Curia romana or Liber notarum, which he wrote day by day as Master of Ceremonies for the purposes of his office, though inserting facts and observations relating to the Curia and the events of that turbulent period. For this reason, the work, which runs with some interruptions from 1483 to 1506, is a valuable historical source, though not intended by the author for publication. Modern historians generally acknowledge the author’s veracity, as he neither lies nor slanders deliberately, though he sometimes records rumors that are difficult to verify.