Claude Chastillon

Claude Chastillon or Chatillon[1] (1559 or 1560 – 27 April 1616) was a French architect, military and civil engineer, and topographical draughtsman, who served under Henry IV of France.

[2][3] In the course of his professional duties, Chastillon toured France and neighboring countries and made drawings of many of the places he visited, including views of towns and buildings, ancient and contemporary.

It includes views of the houses and châteaux of officials and friends of the king, many now destroyed, and is therefore an invaluable source for the study of French noble residences of the period.

[2] The errors of the 1648 and 1655 editions and the tendency of the drawings to exaggerate the sizes of buildings, as well as the coarse quality of many of the engravings, have led some historians to discount the accuracy and utility of Topographie françoise.

Nevertheless, Françoise Boudon has argued that an examination of the work reveals that "Chastillon's topographical approach (his search for the best viewpoint, the measurement of distances, the pinpointing of characteristic features of the terrain and distinctive features of building etc)" ... has made it "apparent that these engravings, far from being whimsical and useless images, constitute the pages of a precise 'report' on France in the early 17th century.