to his new diocese, and returned again from 4 July until mid-August. He was back in Rome on 15 August for the commemoration of Pope Alexander VI, and then returned again to his diocese, until 8 October 1504. In 1505 Burchard suffered an attack of "goutte", which kept him confined to his room. Thuasne notices that from this point the entries in his diary are less regular and without the usual historical detail as earlier. On 21 April 1506, Pope Julius II signed the document appointing Burchard to the office of Abbreviator de Parco Majore in the Papal Curia, for which Burchard had paid 2,400 ducats. Joannes Burchard died on Saturday evening, 16 May 1506. He was buried in the church of Santa Maria del Popolo at the Flaminian Gate. Historical importance Burchard's importance derives from his Liber Notarum, a form of official record of the more significant papal ceremonies with which he was involved. The first volume of the first critical edition of this work was published by E. Celani in 1906 as Johannis Burckardi Liber Notarum ab anno MCCCCLXXXIII usque ad annum MDVI. A second volume followed (1911). Celani's edition collated various earlier printed editions of the work, and a collection of uncertain notations, with Burchard's original manuscript, thereby establishing an important critical edition of this account of the papal court at the end of the fifteenth century. As Ceremoniere, he was responsible for the publication of a revised edition of the Liber Pontificalis in 1485, and, along with Agostino Patrizi, for the publication of a new edition of the Caeremoniale Episcoporum in 1488. Perhaps Burchard's most enduring publication was the Ordo Servandus per Sacerdotem in celebratione Missae, published under orders from Pope Alexander VI. This book went through numerous editions before its substance eventually made its way into the Normae Generales of the Roman Missal. His diary records an alleged orgy known as the Banquet of Chestnuts, held by Cesare Borgia in the Papal Palace on 30 October 1501. Mandell Creighton accepts the story as basically true, and he cites the corroborative evidence of a dispatch of the Florentine Ambassador, Francesco Pepi. Maria Bellonci also seems to accept the story. However, Picotti believes the diary should be regarded with some caution regarding entries concerning the Borgias, since it is fairly apparent that Burchard disliked the Borgias. Burchard's immediate successor as First Master of Ceremonies, Paris de Grassis,