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Born in Europe, he came to Scotland in 1669 and settled here in 1671. To repay the kindness he had experienced in the garrisons in which he found himself in Scotland he decided in 1678 to execute a series of etched views of Scotland's principal towns and castles and to publish these. His project marked the first attempt by anyone to visually record so much of Scotland. By this time he was Lieutenant of the Scots Train of Artillery. His publication, "Theatrum Scotiae" finally appeared in 1693, printed and published in London but it was not a success and Slezer, by then Captain of the Scots Train of Artillery, soon found himself seeking sanctuary in the Debtors Prison at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh where he was able to avoid arrest, unusually continue in his military office, and where he spent his final years. Following his death subsequent editions of the Theatrum Scotiae were published. RSA Library contains a copy of the first edition. The first biography of him; A Vision of Scotland: the Nation Observed by John Slezer 1671-1717" written by Keith Cavers, was published by HMSO in association with the NLS in 1993.