Oronce Finé (December 20, 1494 - August 8, 1555), also known as Orontius Finnaeus, was a French astronomer, astrologer, mathematician, and cartographer active in Paris in the first half of the 16th century. Finé was born in Briançon, the son and grandson of prominent physicians. He was educated in Paris at the Collège de Navarre, where in1522 he was awarded a medical degree. As a young man he became involved with judicial astrology, a pseudoscience that involved predicting future events based upon complex mathematical calculations derived from careful observations of planetary and stellar bodies. This practice was declared heretical by the catholic church and led to Finé's temporary arrest and imprisonment in 1524. Nonetheless by 1531 he was appointed to the chair of mathematics at the Collège Royal (the present Collège de France), founded by King Francis I. This was a position he would retain throughout his life. Finé became one of the most prolific authors of mathematical books of his age. He worked in a wide range of mathematical fields, including practical geometry, arithmetic, optics, gnomonics, astronomy, and instrumentalism. In cartography, Finé is known for several maps, including a revolutionary 1525 map of France. Significantly, he introduced the cordiform (heart-shaped) projection model in an attempt to address the curvature of the Earth on a two-dimensional plane. Finé issued two cordiform world maps, a single heart-shaped map representing the known world, and a double cordiform projection detailing expanding from the north and south polar regions. His work was both revolutionary and widely copied in the subsequent century. Finé died in Paris at 60. The lunar crater Orontius and Finaeus Cove in Antarctica are named after him. In 2014, a square named after Oronce Fine was inaugurated in Paris. More by this mapmaker...

Chrétien Wechel (1495 - 1554), or Christianus Welchlus, was a French printer active in Paris in the first half of the 16th century. Wechel was born in Herentals, Brabant, near Antwerp. He married Michelle Robillart, a widow who, through her deceased husband Jean Périer, was well connected in French literary and publishing circles. He moved to Paris around 1519 and was naturalized as a French citizen in 1528. In August of 1526, Wechel and Robillart acquired the Paris business of the Swabian bookseller and printer Conrad Resch (Resch was relocating to Basel), for whom Wechel worked as a manager. Wechel expanded the publishing arm of the already significant bookshop, adding his own presses by 1528. Wechel specialized in Greek, Hebrew and Humanist prints. He embraced the ideas of Martin Luther and the French evangelicals. He published the 1540 edition of Oronce Finé's (1494 - 1555) important Nova, et Integra Universi Orbis Descriptio. When Wechel died in 1554, his son André Wechel took over the Paris business, which he ran until 1573. He relocated the business to Frankfurt-am-Main, where it was active from 1573 to 1581. Learn More...