Spon, Charles

, a learned Frenchman, was the son of a merchant, and born at Lyons Dec. 25, 1609. He. was sent early to learn Latin, at Ulm in Germany, whence- his grandfather had removed for the sake of settling in commerce, and he made a proficiency suitable to his uncommon parts. He gained some reputation by a Latin poem on the deluge and last conflagration, composed by him at fourteen, which Bayle says would have done honour to an adult. At his return from Germany, he was sent to Paris; and studied philosophy under Rodon, and mathematics and astronomy under John Baptist Morin. From 1627, he applied himself to medicine for three or four years; and quitting Paris in 1632, went to Montpellier, where he was . | received a doctor in that faculty. Two years after, he was admitted a member of the college of physic at Lyons: at which place be practised with great success in his profession, till the time of his death. He was made, in 1645, a kind of honorary physician to the king. He maintained a correspondence with all the learned of Europe, and especially with Guy Patin, professor of physic at Paris: above 150 of whose letters to Spon were published after his death. He was perfectly skilled in the Greek language, and understood the German as well as his own. He always cultivated his talent for Latin poetry, and even versified the aphorisms of Hippocrates, but did not publish them. He published, however, in 1661, the prognostics of Hippocrates in hexameter verse, which he entitled “Sibylla Medica;” and dedicated them to his friend Guy Patin. He was a benefactor to the republic of letters, by occasioning many productions of less opulent authors to be published at Lyons, under his inspection and care. He died Feb. 21, 16S4, after an illness of about two months. ¹