Joachim Burser (1583 - 28 August 1639) was a German-Danish botanist, physician and pharmacist. He was professor of medicine and physics at Soro Academy from 1625 and owned

Sorø Pharmacy Sorø Pharmacy (Danish language, Danish: Sorø Apotek) is located on Storgade in Sorø, Denmark. The current buildings date from the 1840s and were listed on the Listed buildings in Sorø Municipality, Danish registry of protected buildings and p ...

from its reopening in 1639.

Biography

Burser was born in Camentz,

Lausitz Lusatia (; ; ; ; ; ), otherwise known as Sorbia, is a region in Central Europe, formerly entirely in Germany and today territorially split between Germany and modern-day Poland. Lusatia stretches from the Bóbr and Kwisa rivers in the east ...

. He studied medicine and botany at several universities, including

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

where he studied under

Caspar Bauhin Gaspard Bauhin or Caspar Bauhin (; 17 January 1560 – 5 December 1624), was a Swiss botanist whose ''Pinax theatri botanici'' (1623) described thousands of plants and classified them in a manner that draws comparisons to the later binomial nome ...

. He then practiced as a physician in Annaberg,

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

. He moved to Denmark in 1625 when he was offered a position as professor in medicine and botany at the new

Sorø Academy Sorø Academy ( Danish: ''Sorø Akademi'') is a boarding school and gymnasium located in the small town of Sorø, Denmark. It traces its history back to the 12th century when Bishop Absalon founded a monastery at the site, which was confiscated by ...

. In January 1639 he was also awarded a royal license to open a pharmacy in

Sorø Sorø () is a town in Sorø municipality on the island of Zealand (Denmark), Zealand in east Denmark with a population of 8,433 (2025).

Legacy

Burser is mainly remembered for his contributions as a botanist. He left a herbarium in 25 volumes.

Corfitz Ulfeldt Count Corfits Ulfeldt (10 July 1606 – 20 February 1664) was a Danish statesman known for his collaboration with Sweden during and after the 1657-1658 Dano-Swedish War, for which he is considered one of the most notorious traitors in Danish ...

brought it with him to Sweden where it is now kept in

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...

's Museum of Botany. Burser's Pharmacy Garden has been recreated at

Sorø Museum Sorø Museum is a local history museum in Sorø, Denmark. It is housed within an old inn from 1624, one of the oldest buildings in the town. History King Christian IV ordered the establishment of the inn on 13 January 1624 so that visitors to hi ...

. It opened to visitors on 3 June 2006. Austrian botanist

Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin (16 February 172726 October 1817) was a scientist who studied medicine, chemistry and botany. Biography Born in Leiden in the Netherlands, he studied medicine at Leiden University, then moved first to Par ...

named the genus ''

Bursera ''Bursera'' is a genus with about 100 described species of flowering shrubs and trees varying in size up to high. It is the type genus for Burseraceae. The trees are native (often for many species endemic) to the Americas, from the southern Uni ...

'' after Burser.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burser, Joachim 1583 births 1639 deaths 17th-century German botanists 17th-century Danish botanists 17th-century Danish pharmacists Emigrants from the Holy Roman Empire to Denmark–Norway