Paul Rycaut
Sir Paul Rycaut FRS was a British diplomat and historian, and authority on the Ottoman Empire.Life
Rycaut's Huguenot father was held in the Tower of London, during the English Civil War, for his Cavalier sympathy, 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 British Consul and factor at Smyrna. From 1689 to 1700, he was Resident at Hamburg.
On 12 December 1666, Rycaut was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Knighthood was conferred on him in 1685. He died in Hamburg, aged 70.Works
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- * and at National Library of France BnF Gallica
- , Printed for John Starkey, 1679
- General Historie of the Turks, Knolles, Continuation, printed by J.D. for Tho. Basset, R. Clavell, J. Robinson, and A. Churchill, 1687
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- 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.
