Jérôme Bignon was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 born in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.
His family was originating from the western part of France and came to Paris at the beginning of the sixteen century.
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 Choréographie, ou description de la Terre Sainte. The great reputation gained by this book introduced the author to Henry IV

Henry IV of France

Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....

, who placed him for some time as a companion to the duc de Vendôme

César de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme

César de Bourbon, Légitimé de France , Duke of Vendôme, was the son of Henry IV of France and his mistress Gabrielle d'Estrées. Sometimes simply known as César de Vendôme. Through his daughter, Élisabeth de Bourbon, César was a great-great-great-grandfather of Louis XV of France, merging thereafter...

, and made him tutor to the dauphin, afterwards Louis XIII

Louis XIII of France

Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...

.

In 1604 he wrote his Discours de la ville de Rome, and in the following year his Traité sommaire de l'élection du pape. He then devoted himself to the study of law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

, 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 Marculf.

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

Parlement

Parlements were regional legislative bodies in Ancien Régime France.The political institutions of the Parlement in Ancien Régime France developed out of the previous council of the king, the Conseil du roi or curia regis, and consequently had ancient and customary rights of consultation and...

of Paris. In 1641 he resigned his official dignity, and in 1642 was appointed by Richelieu to the charge of the royal library.

His grandson was intendant of the King (governor) in northern France at the end of the seventeenth century and his late descendant, also called Jérôme Bignon, sollicitor, is M.P., elected in the same département of Somme (2007).