Jean-Jacques Boissard (1528 – 30 October 1602) was an antiquary and

Neo-Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

poet.

Life

He was born at

Besançon Besançon (, , , ; archaic german: Bisanz; la, Vesontio) is the prefecture of the department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzer ...

and educated at

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic c ...

; but he secretly left the seminary there, and travelled through (Germany) to Italy, where he remained several years and was often reduced to poverty. His time in Italy gave him a taste for antiquities, and he formed a collection of artefacts from Rome and its vicinity. He then visited the islands of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

, but illness obliged him to return to Rome. Here he completed his collection, and returned to France; but not being permitted to profess publicly the

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

religion, which he had embraced some time before, he withdrew to

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

, where he remained till his death..

Works

He provided text and drawings for books by Robert Boissard,

Theodor de Bry Theodor de Bry (also Theodorus de Bry) (152827 March 1598) was an engraver, goldsmith, editor and publisher, famous for his depictions of early European expeditions to the Americas. The Spanish Inquisition forced de Bry , a Protestant, to ...

, Jacques Granthomme and Alexandre Vallée.British Museum database page
Major works are: *''Poemata'' (1574) *''Emblemata'' (1584) *''Icones Virorum Illustrium'' (1597) *''Vitae et Icones Sultanorum Turcicorum, etc.'' (1597) *''Theatrum Vitae Humanae'' (1596) *''Romanae urbis topographia et antiquitates'' (1597–1602) *''De Divinatione et Magicis Praestigiis'' (1605) *''Habitus Variarum Orbis Gentium'' (1581), ornamented with seventy illuminated figures.

Notes

External links

*

;Attribution * * ttps://www.e-rara.ch/sbs/doi/10.3931/e-rara-79373 Digitized Edition of 'Bibliotheca chalcographica, hoc est Virtute et eruditione clarorum Virorum Imagine latin, from 1669, a
E-rara.ch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boissard, Jean-Jacques 1528 births 1602 deaths Writers from Besançon 16th-century French poets French Protestants New Latin-language poets French antiquarians French male poets French male non-fiction writers