JEROME

See also:

• JEROME BIGNON (1589–1656)
• BIGNON, LOUIS PIERRE EDOUARD, BARON (1771–1841)

BIGNON (1589–1656)  , French lawyer, was born at Paris in 1589 . He was uncommonly precocious, and under his father's tuition had acquired an immense mass of knowledge before he was ten years of age . In 1600 was published a work by him entitled Chorographie, ou description de la Terre Sainte . The great reputation gained by this book introduced the author to Henry IV., who placed him for some time as a companion to the due de Vendome, and made him tutor to the dauphin, afterwards Louis XIII . In 1604 he wrote his Discours de la ville de Rome, and in the following year his Traite aommaire de l'election du page . He then devoted himself to the study of law, wrote in 1610 a treatise on the precedency of the kings of France, which gave great satisfaction to Henry IV., and in 1613 edited, with learned notes, the Formulae of the jurist Marculfe . In 1620 he was made advocate-general to the grand council, and shortly afterwards a councillor of state, and in 1626 he became advocate-general to the parlement of Paris . In 1641 he re-signed his official dignity, and in 1642 was appointed by Richelieu to the charge of the royal library . He died in 1656 .