Terry Foreman on 16 Oct 2009  •  Link

Rycaut, Paul (1628–1700), traveller and author. He was secretary to the British Embassy at Constantinople and then consul to the Levant Company at Smyrna. His essay on The Present State of the Greek and Armenian Churches (1679) remains an important source of information.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1…

Terry Foreman on 2 Apr 2011  •  Link

Sir Paul Rycaut FRS (23 December 1629 London - 16 November 1700 Hamburg) was a British diplomat and historian, and authority on the Ottoman Empire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul…

Bill on 7 Jan 2014  •  Link

Paul Ricaut, or Rycaut, was a gentleman of good parts and learning, and particularly distinguished by his travels, his negotiations, and his writings. He composed his "Present State of the Ottoman Empire" during his residence at Constantinople, where he was secretary to Heneage Finch, earl of Wilchelsea, ambassador to the Ottoman Porte. He was about eleven years consul for the English nation at Smyrna, where he wrote his "Present State of the Greek and Armenian Churches." But his capital performance is his "Continuation of Richard Knolles's excellent History of the Turks." He was, from his great knowledge of the Turkish affairs, better qualified than any other person for this work; but he is inferior to Knolles in historic merit. He also wrote a "Continuation of Platina's Lives of the Popes," in folio, which was published in the reign of James II. by whom he was knighted. He also translated Garcillasso de la Vega's "Commentaries of Peru." He was, by king William, sent resident to Hamburgh, where he. lived ten years. In 1700, he returned to England, and died in November the same year.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.