Note 127 — LETTER I. (continued 2)

P. Gilles (or Gyllius) was born at Albi in 1490. He was sent by Francis I. to the Levant; the remittances he expected having miscarried, he was obliged to enlist in Solyman’s army and served against the Persians. In 1549 he received money from his friends, with which he purchased his discharge. He returned home in 1550, and died at Rome in 1555, the year that Busbecq wrote this letter. Besides other works he published three books on the Thracian Bosphorus, and four on the Topography and Antiquities of Constantinople. Gibbon quotes him frequently, and speaks of his learning with great respect.