1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Spon, Jacques

SPON, JACQUES (1647-1685), French doctor and archaeologist, was born at Lyons and died at Vevey. He is famous as a pioneer in the exploration of the monuments of Greece, travelling there in 1675-1676 with the Englishman (Sir) George Wheler (1650-1723), whose collection of antiquities was afterwards bequeathed to Oxford University. Spon brought back many valuable treasures, coins, inscriptions and manuscripts, and in later years published various important works on archaeology, notably his Voyage d'Italie, de Dalmatie, de Grèce et du Levant (1678), and a Histoire de la république de Genève (1680).