Paul Rycaut

Sir Paul Rycaut, FRS (23 December 1629 – 16 November 1700) was an English diplomat and historian who specialised in the history of the Ottoman Empire.

Life

Paul Rycaut's Huguenot father was held in the Tower of London, during the English Civil War, for his Cavalier sympathies, but the sequestration of his property was lifted. Rycaut was born in Aylesford, Kent, and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1650. In 1652, he was admitted to Gray's Inn. While studying at Alcalá de Henares, he learned Spanish and translated the first part of Baltasar Gracián's The Critick. Rycaut was then employed as private secretary to Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea, ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. He became the English consul and factor at Smyrna (now İzmir).

From 1689 to 1700, he was Resident at Hamburg. He was active in frustrating the Company of Scotland's efforts to raise capital in the city. On 12 December 1666, Rycaut was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. A knighthood was conferred on him in 1685. He died in Hamburg in November 1700, aged 70, of a stroke.

Works

1670 French translation and Images from the book at National Library of France BnF Gallica The Present State of the Greek and Armenian Churches, Anno Christi 1678 Written at the Command of His Majesty by Paul Ricaut, Printed for John Starkey, 1679

Baptista Platina, The lives of the popes, Translator Paul Rycaut, Illustrator Robert White, printed for C. Wilkinson, 1688

His letters to William Blathwayt are held at Princeton University.