Jean Nicolas DU TRALAGE (Sieur de Tillemon)

Jean Nicolas du Tralage (also known as Sieur de Tillemon) was an amateur French geographer, cartographer, historian, and collector. He was born between circa 1620 and 1640 and died in Paris between circa 1699 and 1720. Little is known about his family background and education. However, he is historically noted as the nephew of Gabriel Nicolas de La Reynie, the celebrated first Lieutenant General of Police in Paris.

Du Tralage played an important, yet largely supportive and collaborative role in late 17^th-century French cartography, primarily operating as a scholarly source of geographic data rather than a commercial publisher. He is best remembered for his close working relationship with the royal engraver and cartographer Jean-Baptiste Nolin, whom Du Tralage supplied with extensive manuscripts, notes, and raw geographic materials. His contributions were foundational to several significant maps published by Nolin, including Le Globe Terrestre (1699), as well as highly detailed regional maps such as L'Europe selon les mémoires de Coronelli (1696) and Le Royaume de Pologne (1697). Beyond his collaborative cartographic output, Du Tralage was an avid print collector who accumulated over 32,000 items, a massive collection bequeathed to the Abbey of Saint-Victor in 1699 that eventually entered the Bibliothèque Nationale.

Du Tralage is remembered as a meticulous scholar and collector whose extensive geographical research and manuscript materials fuelled the production of some of the most prominent French maps of the late 17^th century.