Giovanni Giorgio Settala (1520 - 1590) was a Milanese cosmographer, cartographer, painter and engineer. He was trained by the engineer Gian Maria Olgiati, and beginninb in 1555 he worked as a fortification engineer in Lombardy; he built works for Piacenza and Milan in 1556 and 1557, and for Lucca in 1562. He was court painter and cosmographer for the Marquis del Vasto, for whom he wrote the cosmological work Tutto l'Universo in 1539. The Marquis displayed a series of tapestries based on Settala's book, which were so admired by the Emperor Charles V that he would in 1542 appoint Settala imperial cosmographer. In 1564 he was assigned to Spain as Royal Engineer, and in 1565 modified Calvi's fortifications at Perpignan. He would continue to do so more or less the rest of his life - 1585 found him complaining about lack of payment for that work, and petitioning the King to be allowed home to Milan. Since he died in Perpignan, it seems unlikely that he ever saw home again.

Settala produced a map of the Duchy of Milan, printed by Hieronimus Cock in 1560, which provided the model for the map of the Duchy that appeared in Abraham Ortelius' 1570 Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. A map of Spain entitled Hispania Universa Tabulis expressa and dedicated to the Emperor may or may not have been executed, but it has not survived. In 1571 he produced a drawing of Perpignan's defenses for the King and his council. In 1581 he designed a small fortress for the Alfaques de Tortosa, to discourage corsairs from resupply there.