Armand-Jérôme Bignon (21 October 1711,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
– 8 March 1772,
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
) was a French lawyer, royal librarian and
conseiller d'État.
Biography
The lord of
ÃŽle Belle and
Hardricourt, he was made avocat général to the
Grand Conseil
The term Grand Conseil () or Great Council refers two different institutions during the Ancien Régime in France. It also is the name of parliaments in several Swiss cantons.
Ancien Régime France Part of the King's Council
Starting in the 13th ...
in 1729,
maître des requêtes
A Master of Requests () is a counsel of the French ''Conseil d'État'' (Council of State), a high-level judicial officer of administrative law in France. The office has existed in one form or another since the Middle Ages.
The occupational titl ...
for Soissons in 1737 and president of the Grand Conseil in 1738.
In 1743, on his brother's death he was made royal librarian (a post Armand-Jérôme had inherited in turn from their uncle
Jean-Paul Bignon
The Abbé Jean-Paul Bignon, Oratory of Jesus, Cong.Orat. (; 19 September 1662, Paris – 14 March 1743, Île Belle) was a French ecclesiastic, statesman, writer and preacher and librarian to Louis XIV of France. His protégé, Joseph Pitton de ...
). Armand-Jérôme resigned from it in 1770 in favour of his son
Jérôme-Frédéric.
He was elected to the Académie française in 1743 and to the
Académie des Inscriptions
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
in 1751. He was made conseiller d’État in 1762 and
prévôt des marchands de Paris in 1764. The scholar Dupuy pronounced his elogy. It was his negligence in the latter post that caused the accidents in the firework display for the marriage of the Dauphin (later
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
) and
Marie-Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (; ; Maria Antonia Josefa Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution and the establishment of the French First Republic. She was the wife of Louis XVI. Born Archd ...
in May 1770 that left over 300 dead and a greater number of wounded. Even so, he appeared in his box at the Opéra only three days after the disaster, causing all Paris to become indignant.
Under
Louis XIII
Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown.
...
, the prévôt des marchands de Paris and the two premiers échevins were fined for not having repaired a bridge whose collapse killed four or five people. Under
Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...
, his faults born of a lack of foresight were never punished. Paris thus avenged itself by ''bon mots'' against him, including the Latin anagram of his name as ''Ibi non rem, damna gero'' (I don't do good, I do evil).
Works
Armand Jérôme Bignon never published anything, though he did leave manuscript memoirs of a journey to Spain and Italy (now held at the
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...
).
References
*
External links
Académie françaiseBiography – Bibliothèque nationale de France
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bignon, Armand-Jerome
18th-century French lawyers
French librarians
Conseil d'État (France)
Ancien Régime office-holders
Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
1711 births
1772 deaths
Provost of the Merchants of Paris