Gaffarel Jacques

Gaffarel Jacques, a French mystic, was born at Mannes, in Provence, in 1601, and studied at Valence. He showed special aptitude for Oriental and cabalistic studies, and was made librarian at Paris to cardinal Richelieu. In 1625 he published Abdita divine Cabale Mysteria (4to); and got into trouble by Curiositez inouyez sur la sculpture talismanique des Persans (Paris, 1629-30, also 1631, 1637, and in Latin, Curiositates Inauditae [Hamsburg, 1706, 8vo]), which was condemned by the Sorbonne. In 1632 he went to Rome, and became intimate with Leo Allatius. He traveled in Italy, Greece, and Asia; and on his return to Paris received several valuable Churchl preferments. He devoted himself to reclaiming Protestants, but was himself charged with preaching against purgatory. Bayle hints that he did this by order, in order to seduce Protestants. He died in 1681. Among his writings, other than those mentioned, are Dies Domini, sive de fine mundi, etc. (Paris, 1629, 12mo): — Index Codicum cabalisticorum quibus usus est Joannes Mirandulanus (Paris, 1651): — Histoire universelle de monde souterrain (1666, fol.). — Bayle, Dictionary, s.v; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 19:146.