Nicolas BEREY I

Nicolas Berey I was a French map publisher and engraver born circa 1606 to 1610, who died on June 30, 1665, in Paris. Not much is known about his family background and education. He established a publishing business based in Paris, located at the end of the Pont Neuf near the Augustins, and initiated a multi-generational lineage of print and map dealers. His sons, Nicolas Berey II (1640-1667) and Claude Auguste Berey (1651-1732), both continued in the engraving and mapmaking professions, with the family business frequently operating under the royal title of Enlumineur du Roy (Illuminator to the King).

Operating during the rise of the mid-17^th-century Parisian cartographic market, Berey worked primarily as a commercial publisher, printseller, and collaborative distributor. Rather than focusing on original geographical surveys, his output relied significantly on acquiring, adapting, and printing copperplate engravings derived from contemporaneous European mapmakers. He collaborated with prominent Parisian publishers and map editors of the era, including Christophe Nicolas Tassin, Antoine de Fer, Pierre Duval, and Melchior Tavernier. His notable publications include the Carte Generale de toutes les postes et traverses de France (circa 1640), which detailed the early postal routes of France, and a world map issued in 1649, based on a prototype by Jodocus Hondius II.

Nicolas Berey I is remembered as a foundational member of a multi-generational Parisian print dynasty who helped drive the commercialisation and distribution of European regional and postal cartography during the 17^th century.