Nicolas de Nicolay was born in Dauphiné in 1517 and was educated in Lyons. He traveled extensively, served as a soldier and a spy, and excelled as a cartographer. In 1551, he joined the second expedition sent by King Henry II of France to the Ottoman Empire, headed by Gabriel d’Aramon. On his return from the Levant he was appointed “Géographe et valet de chambre du roi.” In 1565 he was charged by Catherine de’ Medici, Henry’s widow, to prepare a description of the provinces of the French kingdom. He died in Paris in 1585.

Nicolay’s Quatres premiers livres des navigations (only the first volume…