François de Belleforest (1530 – 1 January 1583) was a French author, poet and translator. Born poor and orphaned young, he nevertheless found his way into the court of Marguerite of Navarre, and traveled throughout France. He came to Paris, where he interacted with the writers of that generation. and then to Paris where he came into contact with members of the young literary generation. He wrote prolifically - more than fifty works - but he is best known in cartographic circles for his cosmographical and historical writing, as well as his translations. His 1575 translation of Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia resulted in a more beautifully illustrated work than its original, replacing its now out-of-date with gorgeous woodcut renditions of maps based on Ortelius, Braun and Hogenberg, and other courant sources. He rose swiftly despite dying relatively young: from his impoverished beginnings, by 1568 he had become historiographer to the king.