Jacob Spon

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Jacob Spon.
Frontispiece of the script Recherches curieuses d'antiquité (1683)

Jacob Spon (born January 7, 1647 in Lyon , † December 25, 1685 in Vevey ) was a French doctor and archaeologist. He was a great connoisseur of Greek antiquity and conducted research trips at the time of the Ottoman occupation of Greece.

Life

Jacob Spon was born in Lyon in 1647 as the son of the doctor Charles Spon. His family was of the Calvinist denomination and was also active in the banking business; they originally came from Ulm . Since moving to Lyon in 1551, she had risen to considerable fame and fortune.

In addition to studying medicine at the University of Strasbourg from 1662, Spon was introduced to antiquity and especially to Greek numismatics by Charles Patin, who was the same age . After a short stay in Paris, Spon became a doctor of medicine in Montpellier in 1667 and practiced in his native Lyon from 1671 to 1674. His archaeological activities, which were reflected in the publication Recherche des antiquités et curiosités de la ville de Lyon , brought him into contact with well-known philologists and archaeologists of his time, including Du Cange , La Chaise and the Dauphin Louis de Bourbon .

In the years 1675–1676 Spon traveled via Italy to Constantinople and Asia Minor , from there to Greece, where he visited the island of Delos and Athens . He was accompanied by the young botanist George Wheler , who donated his collection of Greek art treasures to Oxford University . Then Spon traveled back to Lyon via Venice and Switzerland without Wheler . Spons detailed travel report Voyage d'Italie, de Dalmatie, de Grèce et du Levant from 1678 (German: Nuremberg 1681 and 1690) represents an important source of the time. In the following years he published Miscellanea eruditae antiquitatis (1679), a Collection of Latin inscriptions, a Histoire de la ville et de l'estat de Geneve (1680) and Recherches curieuses d'antiquité (1683).

After the Edict of Fontainebleau (October 1685), Spon emigrated to Zurich as an avowed Protestant . On the trip he was robbed and lost his collection and property. In the mountains he contracted tuberculosis and died on December 25th in the canton hospital in Vevey .

Fonts (selection)

  • Research of the antiquités et curiosités de la ville de Lyon. Faeton, Lyon 1673 ( digitized version ).
  • Voyage d'Italie, de Dalmatie, de Grèce et du Levant, fait aux années 1675 et 1676. 3 volumes. Cellier, Lyon 1678 ( digitized version ).
  • Histoire de la ville et de l'estat de Geneve depuis les premiers siecles de la fondation de la ville jusqu'a present. Amaulry, Lyon 1680 ( digitized ).
  • Miscellanea eruditae antiquitatis. Widerholdt, Frankfurt 1679 ( digitized version )
  • Recherches curieuses d'antiquité. Amaulry, Lyon 1683 ( digitized version ).

literature

  • Jacqueline Roubert: Jacob Spon - un humaniste lyonnais au XVIIe siècle . Editions de Boccard, Paris 1993.

Web links

Commons : Jacob Spon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l François Angelier: Dictionnaire des Voyageurs et Explorateurs occidentaux du XIIIe au XXe siècle . Pygmalion (Éditions Flammarion), Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-7564-0156-0 , p. 642 .
personal data
SURNAME Spon, Jacob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spon, Jacques
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French doctor and archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1647
PLACE OF BIRTH Lyon
DATE OF DEATH December 5, 1685
Place of death Vevey