Jacques Bongars (155429 July 1612) was a French

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

and

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

Life

Bongars was born at

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and Reformed faith. He obtained his early education at

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

and

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, and returning to France continued his studies at Orléans and

Bourges Bourges ( ; ; ''Borges'' in Berrichon) is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre (Cher), Yèvre. It is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Cher (department), Cher, and also was the capital city of the former provin ...

. After spending some time in Rome he visited eastern Europe, and subsequently made the acquaintance of Ségur Pardaillan, a representative of Henry, king of Navarre, afterwards

Henry IV of France Henry IV (; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry (''le Bon Roi Henri'') or Henry the Great (''Henri le Grand''), was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 16 ...

. He entered the service of Pardaillan, and in 1587 was sent on a mission to many of the princes of northern Europe, after which he visited England to obtain help from Queen Elizabeth for Henry of Navarre. He continued to serve Henry as a diplomatist, and in 1593 became the representative of the French king at the courts of the imperial princes. He served as a major ambassador to the Protestant princes during the War of the Julich Succession. Vigorously seconding the efforts of Henry to curtail the power of the house of

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

, he spent health and money ungrudgingly in this service, and continued his labors until the king's murder in 1610. He then returned to France, and died at Paris. Bongars wrote an abridgment of

Justin Justin may refer to: People and fictional characters * Justin (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Justin (historian), Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire * Justin I (c. 450–527) ...

's abridgment of the history of Trogus Pompeius under the title ''Justinus, Trogi Pompeii Historiarum Philippicarum epitoma de manuscriptis codicibus emendatior et prologis auctior'' (Paris, 1581). He collected the works of several French writers who as contemporaries described the crusades, and published them under the title ''Gesta Dei per Francos'' (Hanover, 1611). Another collection made by Bongars is the ''Rerum Hungaricarum scriptores varii'' (Frankfort, 1600). His ''Epistolae'' were published at Leiden in 1647, and a French translation at Paris in 1668–1670. Many of his papers are preserved in the Burgerbibliothek at

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, to which they were presented in 1632, and a list of them was made in 1634. Other papers and copies of instructions are now in several libraries in Paris; and copies of other instructions are in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Notes

References

*H. Hagen, ' (Berne, 1874) * Léonce Anquez, ' (Paris, 1887) * Andrist Patrick, ''Strassburg - Basel - Bern. Bücher auf der Reise. Das Legat der Bibliothek von Jacques Bongars, die Schenkung von Jakob Graviseth und das weitere Schicksal der Sammlung in Bern'', in Berner Hans (ed.), ''Scriptorium und Offizin : Festgabe für Martin Steinmann zum 70. Geburtstag'', Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde 110 (2010), 249-268.

Bibliography

Gesta Dei per Francos

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bongars, Jacques French scholars 1554 births 1612 deaths People from the Orléanais Writers from Orléans 16th-century French diplomats 16th-century French writers 16th-century French male writers 17th-century French writers 17th-century French male writers French scholars of Roman history