BONGARS, JACQUES. — French diplomat, born in Orléans in 1554, died in Paris on 29 July 1612. After studying first in Germany and then in France, he went to Rome to perfect his philological studies, where in 1581 he published an edition of St Justin with excellent critical notes. After returning to France following extensive travels throughout Europe, he was appointed in 1586 secretary to Henry, King of Navarre, and in 1588 was sent to England and Holland; finally, in 1593, he was dispatched to Germany as resident for the King of France among the princes of the Holy Roman Empire. After the assassination of Henry IV, he obtained permission to return to Paris and devoted his final years to his preferred studies.
Among his works are to be noted: Gesta Dei per Francos (Hanau 1611), the first collection of documents concerning the history of the Crusades; Collectio Rerum Hungaricarum Scriptorum (Frankfurt 1600), an important source for Hungarian history, rich also in Latin epigraphic transcriptions. In 1647 two volumes of Epistolae were also published, containing much information about the history of his time. Bongars’s extremely rich library now forms one of the most valuable collections in the Bern Library.