Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, born in Paris…

Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, born in Paris and trained as an architect, decorator, and engraver, had traveled at some early point in his career to Italy under the auspices of the future cardinal Georges d'Armanac.

The influence of du Cerceau's exposure to ancient Roman architecture permeates his later work.

His first volume of engravings had appeared in 1549, and he subsequently moved back to Paris, where his first book on architecture had appeared in 1559.

For several years after 1560 he had worked for Renée de France, duchess of Ferrara, on her castle at Montargis, and it had been the duchess who saved him from religious persecution because of his adherence to Protestant beliefs.

Du Cerceau has worked in the 1570s for the French king Charles IX and for Catherine de Médicis.

Du Cerceau's best and most noted publication, Les plus excellents bastiments de France, 2 vol. (1576 and 1579; “The Finest Buildings of France”), is an outstanding resource for many sixteenth-century houses that since have been altered or destroyed.

Among his other published works are Arcs (1549; “Arches”), Temples (1550), Vues d'optique (1551), and Livre d'architecture (1559; “Book of Architecture”).

He has actually built several structures, but nothing remains of his work.

Baptiste Androuet du Cerceau had succeeded his father, Jacques Androuet, in 1572–1577 as the major architect of Charles IX's Château Charleval.

He works later in 1579 on the Pont Neuf, which is his only surviving work.