John James, an antiquarian and Latin poet, born at Besançon in 1528. He studied at first under Hugues Babel, his uncle, professor of Greek at Louvain, and afterwards had other able masters; but their severity having disgusted him with study, he fled secretly from Louvain, traversed a great part of Germany, and reached Italy, where he remained for several years, and was often reduced to great straits. His residence in Italy developed in his mind a taste for antiquities; he learned to design, and soon formed a collection of the most curious monuments of Rome and its vicinity; he then visited the islands of the Archipelago, with the intention of travelling through Greece, but a severe malady with which he was attacked obliged him to return to Rome. Here he resumed his favourite pursuits with great ardour and enthusiasm; and having completed his collection, returned to his native country. But not being permitted to profess publicly the Protestant religion, which he had embraced some time before, he withdrew to Metz, where he died on the 30th of October 1602, at the age of seventy four. His works are:

1. Poemata Epigrammatum libri tres, Elegiae libri tres, Epistolarii libri tres, Basel, 1574; 2. Emblemata, Latin and French, Metz, 1584; 3. Emblemata, Latin, Frankfort, 1595; 4. Vitae et Icones Sultanorum Turcicorum, &c., Frankfort, 1596; 5. Theatrum Vite Humane, Metz, 1596; 6. Romanus Urbis Topographie et Antiquitatum, quibus succincte et breviter descriptur omnium qua tum publice quam privato videntur animadversione digna, partes et, Frankfort, 1597, 1598, 1600, and 1602, folio, six times in three, with plates, and now very rare; 7. Icones et Vitae Virorum Illustrium, Frankfort, 1592 to 1599; 8. Parnassus Biceps, Frankfort, 1601; 9. De Divinatione et Magicis prestigiis, Oppenheim and Hanau, rare and curious; and, 10. Habitatus Variarum Gentium, Metz, 1581, ornamented with seventy illuminated figures.