BURCARDO, GIOVANNI. – Papal master of ceremonies, liturgist, and historian, born at Nieder-Haslach (Alsace) around 1450, died in Rome on 16 May 1506. Having come to Rome in 1467 in search of his fortune, he initially served various cardinals, and then became a member of the household of Sisto IV (ca. 1475), from whom he obtained various ecclesiastical benefices and high curial offices, such as that of apostolic protonotary (1481) and master of ceremonies (1483), an office he held until his death, even after becoming bishop of the united dioceses of Civita Castellana and Orte (1503–1506). He was a skilled liturgist, experienced in his office, and an acute observer, but also greedy for money. In Rome he had a house built, the Torre Argentina, so called after his native Strasbourg (Argentoratum). He was also rector of the German national church of S. Maria dell'Anima in Rome; he was buried in S. Maria del Popolo.
Together with Ag. Patrizzi, he published the Liber pontificalis, that is, the Roman Pontifical (Rome 1485), which he reprinted in a second edition with Giacomo De Lucis (ibid. 1487). His principal liturgical work is Ordo servandus per sacerdotem in celebratione Missae (Rome 1495, printed by Stef. Planck [cf. L. Hain, Repert. bibl., no. 4102), republished in Rome in 1502 and very frequently thereafter under various titles), a work whose substance entered the Roman Missal as General Rubrics and Rite for Celebrating Mass. Much liturgical material for the use of the papal Curia is also scattered throughout the celebrated work Diario della Curia romana or Liber notarum, which, as master of ceremonies, he wrote day by day in the interest of his office, while also including facts and observations concerning the Curia and the events of that turbulent period. In this respect, the work, which extends with some interruptions from 1483 to 1506, is a precious historical source, though its author did not intend it for the public. The leading historians of today acknowledge the author's truthfulness: he knowingly neither lies nor slanders deliberately, although at times he perhaps accepts rumors that are difficult to verify.