(1647/8 - 1727)
Engraver and draughtsman Michael Burghers was born in Amsterdam and apprenticed to an engraver from a young age. He left the Netherlands soon after 1672 and spent much of his life working for the University of Oxford, where he established a virtual monopoly on engraving. After the death of artist and engraver David Loggan in 1692, Burghers succeeded him as ‘calcographus academicus’. He produced plates depicting a wide range of subjects, including natural history specimens, antiquities, maps and portraits. He also designed and engraved most of the plates for the Oxford almanacks, from the first edition in 1676 to 1719. His eyesight declined in the final years of his life, impeding his ability to work.
