- Albert Burgh
Albert Coenraadsz. Burgh (1593 – December 24, 1647) was a Dutch physician who was mayor of
Amsterdam and a councillor in theAdmiralty of Amsterdam .Biography
Burgh was born into a rich brewer's family. He studied medicine in
Leiden in 1614 and became a doctor in 1618 in Amsterdam. In the same year he entered the city council as aCalvinist . He changed his view within a couple of years, paying a fine for the famous Dutch poetVondel . Joost van den Vondel got into trouble because of a play "Palamedes ", in which he was reminding to the beheading ofJohan van Oldenbarneveldt . Oldenbarneveldt pleaded for peace with Spain and shrinking the state army.In 1629 Albert Burgh owned land in
Rensselaerwyck , Albany, which he sold to the main investorKiliaen van Rensselaer . He helpedCaspar Barlaeus , a famous Dutch scholar with a teaching job at theAthenaeum Illustre , after he was fired inLeiden in 1619. In 1638 he andAndries Bicker offeredMarie de' Medici a meal withrice , in those days very exotic and hardly known to Europeans. He sold her a famous silverrosary , captured in 1629 byPiet Hein inBrazil .Grain was extremely important for the city's wealth and influence. During his lifetime he visited
Moscovia twice, in order to improve trade relations. Burgh died on Christmas Eve inNovgorod . The corpse was returned to Amsterdam.Dirck Tulp , the son of the famous surgeonNicolaes Tulp who had accompanied him on his trip toMoscow , married his daughter Anna.Albert Burgh, a
Franciscan inRome , and one of his grandsons, argued with his former teacherBaruch Spinoza in a couple of curious and famous letters, and another was the mayorCoenraad van Beuningen ources
*Elias, J.E. (1903-1905, reprint 1963) "De vroedschap van Amsterdam 1578-1795", two volumes.
External links
* [http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/aria/aria_assets/SK-C-370?lang=en The governors of the civic guard, including Albert C. Burgh]
* [http://www.skepticfiles.org/atheist/spinozad.htm Spinoza to Albert Burgh]
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