[2] He became a student of the instrument-maker Jean de Fusoris, who was employed between 1400 and 1445 by Philip the Good and later by the French king Louis XI of France.
Between 1438 and 1446 (several decades before the activities of Leonardo da Vinci), he created manuscripts in Latin on a wide variety of technical subjects, including astronomy, hydraulics, astronomical instruments, and drawings of apparent inventions like a folding ladder and a gem polishing machine.
His description of the organ is more practical than earlier treatises, describing the composition of the diapason chorus and the scaling of the pipes.
[1] As councilor to Philip the Good, he produced a map in 1444 of the region contested between France and Burgundy, in order to define French enclaves that could be eliminated to simplify the border.
[4] Between 1454 and 1461 he left the Burgundian court to work for the French kings Charles VII and Louis XI in Paris, where he died of the plague in 1466.