Born in Paris, Jean-François Niceron was professor of mathematics in the convent of the Minim friars in Rome (Trinità dei Monti). His study of natural philosophy concentrated on geometrical optics and perspective, to which he dedicated a successful work: La perspective curieuse ou Magie artificielle des effets merveilleux (Paris, 1638). He spent most of his life in Rome, contributing to the diffusion of the works of the main contemporary French mathematicians in Italy.