Robert Dudley was an English explorer, cartographer, and one of 

’s favourite courtiers. At the age of twenty-one, Dudley led an expedition to the Orinoco River and Guiana. 

Forced to flee England due to political rivalry, in 1606, Dudley arrived in Florence at the court of Grand Duke Ferdinand II. He served the 

 for the rest of his life as a civil engineer, naval architect, and geographer. Dudley’s greatest work was a maritime encyclopaedia, 

This astonishing set of books provided information on navigation, drawing scaled maps, and sailing a navy fleet. Using the Mercator projection, the books contained a beautiful sea atlas and maps of Latin America.