Jean-Jacques Boissard (1528 - October 30, 1602), was a French antiquary and Latin poet.

He was born at Besançon and educated at Louvain; but disgusted by the severity of his master, he secretly left the seminary there, and travelled through Germany to Italy, where he remained several years and was often reduced to poverty. His time in Italy gave him a taste for antiquities, and he soon formed a collection of curious artefacts from Rome and its vicinity. He then visited the islands of Greece, but a severe illness obliged him to return to Rome. Here he resumed his favourite pastimes, and having completed his collection, returned to France; but not being permitted to profess publicly the Protestant religion, which he had embraced some time before, he withdrew to Metz, where he remained till his death.

His most important works are:

• Poemata (1574)
• Emblemata (1584)
• Icones Virorum Illustrium (1597)
• Vitae et Icones Sultanorum Turcicorum, etc. (1597)
• Theatrum Vitae Humanae (1596)
• Romanae Urbis Topogrephia (1597-1602), now very rare
• De Divinatione et Magicis Praestigiis (1605)
• Habitus Variarum Orbis Gentium (1581), ornamented with seventy illuminated figures.

Reference

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.