After his return he filled various educational offices, and took his doctor's degree with two theses, Quid Vestae cultus in institutis veterum privatis publicisque valuerit and Polybe, ou la Grece conquise par les Romains (1858).
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 Grece et du Levant (1678), and a Histoire de la republique de Geneve (1680).
The visit of the French physician Jacques Spon and the Englishman, Sir George Wheler or Wheeler (1650-1723), fortunately took place before the catastrophe of the Parthenon in 1687; Spon's Voyage d'Italie, de Dalmatie, de Grece et du Levant, which contained the first scientific description of the ruins of Athens, appeared in 1678; Wheler's Journey into Greece, in 1682.
Barthelemy borrows his name as the title for his Anacharsis en Grece.
Grece et Rome (Geneva, 1838); Greenidge, Roman Public Life, p. 65 foll., 102, 238 foil.