Burman was born at Utrecht on 6 July 1668,[3] the son of Franz Burmann (Franciscus Burmannus; 1628–1679) and Maria, daughter of Abraham Heidanus.

[4][5] His father was the son of a Protestant minister who had been driven from France; he officiated as professor of theology at Utrecht, and became known by his writings, especially by his commentaries on the Old Testament.

His numerous editorial and critical works spread his fame as a scholar throughout Europe, and engaged him in many of the stormy disputes which were then so common among men of letters.

[20] Burman also emended Thomas Ruddiman's edition of George Buchanan's Latin works,[21] continued Graevius's Thesauruses of Italian[22] and Sicilian history,[23] and wrote the treatise De Vectigalibus Populi Romani (1694)[24] and A Brief Description of Roman Antiquities (1711).

[7] In his edition of Petronius's Satyricon, Burman demonstrated that the supplementary material recently added to the text by François Nodot was in fact a forgery.