BONJOUR, GUILLAUME. - Orientalist and exegete,
b. at Toulouse in 1670, d. in China on 23 Dec. 1714. He
belonged to the Order of Hermits of St Augustine.
The early years of his scientific career were largely
devoted to research in chronology and archaeology. In 1695
he was summoned to Rome by Cardinal de Noris, of the same
Order and a fellow student in these fields, and he applied
himself especially to the study of Egyptian antiquities and
the Coptic language, of which he is one of the principal
restorers. From this period date his book *In monumenta
coptica seu aegyptiaca Bibliothecae Vaticanae brevis
exercitatio* (Rome 1699) and his Coptic grammar (manuscript
in the Angelica Library no. 475). In 1701 he was named a
member of the Congregation for the Reform of the Calendar,
and in 1705 Cardinal Barbarigo entrusted him with the
regency of his new seminary at Montefiascone, where he
taught biblical sciences until 1707.
Returning to Rome, he felt called to missionary life. He
was commissioned by Clement XI to deliver the cardinal’s
hat to Th. de Tournon, exiled in Macao. After a painful
journey to China, he arrived in Macao in 1710 and then
proceeded onward. In Peking he was well received by the
Emperor. Together with the Jesuit missionaries he helped
compile part of the map of the Chinese Empire, printed in
Peking in 1718, namely sheets 11–13 of the provinces of
Yun-nan, Szechwan and the territory of Hani. He was
honourably buried in Peking.
Other printed works: *Dissertatio de nomine Patriarchae
Joseph* (Rome 1696); *Triduana de canone librorum ss.
concertatio* (Montefiascone 1704); *Selectae in Sacram
Scripturam dissertationes* (ibid. 1705). Other works
remained unpublished (cf. E. Narducci, *Catalogus Cod. Mss.
in Bibl. Angelica*, I, Rome 1893).