Jean-François Séguier

Jean-François Séguier was born in Nîmes in 1703. A magistrate's son, he also studied law.

His meeting in 1732 with Marquis Francesco Scipione Maffei, one of the greatest Italian article writers, changed the course of his life. Séguier became Maffei's assistant, accompanying him on his travels in Europe and working with him in V

Séguier took an interest in astronomy—he published observations on a comet—and above all in natural history, in this case the fossils of the Verona region.

He published several works on botany, including a bibliography and, seen here, a survey of the plants of the Verona region.

In the wake of Maffei, he studied the remains of ancient history and worked on the creation of a general compendium of ancient inscriptions, which remained unfinished.

Séguier completed an accurate survey drawing of the fixing holes of the missing letters.

Séguier maintained an extensive correspondence with many French and foreign scholars.

He recorded the names of his correspondents and guests in notebooks.

His townhouse has become a museum that people come to visit from afar.

Upon his death in 1784, Séguier bequeathed his rich collections to the Académie de Nîmes, of which he was the permanent secretary. They are now kept in the library and in the city's museums.