He is known for publishing a series of significant volumes of English Renaissance drama, including works by William Shakespeare, Robert Greene, John Lyly, and Thomas Nashe.
As his title pages attest, his shops were located 1) "under Saint Mildred's Church in the Poultry," 2) "at the Royal Exchange," and 3) "in Paul's Churchyard at the sign of the Swan."
He had "a large, flourishing, respectable business...."[2] Early in his career as a publisher, Burby issued works in the famous controversy between Thomas Nashe and Gabriel Harvey.
Curiously, Burby published works in their exchange by both Nashe and Harvey; his connection, it appears, was not personal or ideological – just business.
He published Palladis Tamia (1598) by Francis Meres, which contains an important reference to Shakespeare and a list of Shakespearean works produced up to 1598.
He was one of the three publishers who issued Robert Allot's verse anthology England's Parnassus in 1600 (the other two being Nicholas Ling and Thomas Heyes).