Petrus Gyllius or Gillius (or Pierre Gilles) (1490–1555) was a French natural scientist, topographer and translator. Gilles was born in

Albi Albi (; ) is a commune in France, commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn (department), Tarn Departments of France, department, on the river Tarn (river), Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ...

, southern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. A great traveller, he studied the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

and

Orient The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term ''Occident'', which refers to the Western world. In English, it is largely a meto ...

, producing such works as ''De Topographia Constantinopoleos et de illius antiquitatibus libri IV,'' ''Cosmæ Indopleutes'' and ''De Bosphoro Thracio libri III,'' in which he provided the first written account of the Bosphorus, in Latin, as well as a book about the fish of the

. Sent by King

Francis I of France Francis I (; ; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law Louis&nbs ...

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

in 1544-47 to find ancient

manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has c ...

, he discovered a manuscript of the geographical work of

Dionysius of Byzantium Dionysius of Byzantium ( Greek ∆ιονύσιος Βυζάντιος, Dionysios Byzantios Latin Dionysius Byzantinus) was a Greek geographer of the 2nd century CE. He is known for his Ανάπλους Βοσπόρου ''Anaplous Bosporou'' ''Voy ...

and wrote a Latin paraphrase of it. Most of his books were published after his death by his nephew. In 1533 he also translated

Claudius Aelianus Claudius Aelianus (; ), commonly Aelian (), born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222. He spoke Greek so fluently that he was called "h ...

. He died of malaria in Rome while accompanying his patron, Cardinal Georges d'Armagnac. It is stated that Guillaume-Joseph Grelot continued his work in the 17th-century, publishing his own book in 1680.

Representation in fiction

As Pierre Gilles, Petrus Gyllius plays a small but significant role in ''Pawn in Frankincense'', the fourth volume in the

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictional plot takes place in the Setting (narrative), setting of particular real past events, historical events. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literatur ...

series, ''The Lymond Chronicles'', by Dorothy Dunnett.

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External links

* People from Albi 1490 births 1555 deaths 16th-century writers in Latin French Renaissance humanists French male non-fiction writers 16th-century French translators {{France-scientist-stub

Representation in fiction

References

Further reading

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