János Zsámboky or János Zsámboki or János Sámboki, (with his humanist nameLatin: Johannes Sambucus, or Johannes Pannonicus Sambucus; 1 June 1531 – 13 June 1584) was a Hungarian[1][2]humanist scholar, physician, philologist, and historian.
Sambucus was born in Trnava (Latin: Tyrnavia, Hungarian: Nagyszombat). He was the composer of the most renowned emblem book in Hungary: Emblemata cum aliquot nummis antiqui operis (1564). Sambucus' emblem book was edited five times and it was translated into French and Dutch. He also wrote the Icones veterum aliquot ac recentium Medicorum Philosophorumque in 1574, published in Antwerp.[3] He died, aged 53, in Vienna.
Johannes Sambucus was born in the year 1531 in the town Trnava. While he was Hungarian politically (as a person born in the kingdom), it is possible his family also had Slovak roots.[4][5][6]
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.
1564 saw the first edition of his "Emblemata"; within a short time followed by five more. These works won him international renown as a master of this form of literature. He was the first Hungarian writer whose works were translated into French.
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.
サンブクスはマクシミリアン2世皇帝の侍医、帝国評議会委員、宮廷歴史家として任命された。これにより莫大な財産を築き、世界最大の個人図書館を建設した。その図書館には、ヤヌス・パンノニウスやアントニオ・ボンフィーニなど、これまで知られていなかった古代および同時代のギリシャ語とラテン語の写本が数多く収蔵されており、サンブクスはこれらの写本を部分的に編集したり、影響力を行使して後援したりした。また、『ハンガリア』、『トランシルヴァニア記述』、『イリリウム』などの地図や地理書も出版し、時にはラテン語の詩も書いた。図書館の他に、彼は膨大な貨幣と美術品のコレクションも所有していた。
サンブクスは、同時代の人文主義精神を持つ多くの人々に影響を与え、その多くは書簡のやり取りによるものだった。彼は1584年6月13日にウィーンで亡くなった。彼の住居であったシンガー通り1区3番地には、彼の生涯を記念する銘板が設置されている。
サンブクスの蔵書、地図、硬貨、美術品は、オーストリア国立図書館の写本コレクションの基礎となった。