BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE

Consult in image mode

Transcribed version of the text

French

     A second edition, posthumous, of the théâtre de l'art de charpentier, in 1650, was published again at La Flèche, by Georges Griveau, printer to the king and to the Royal College of the Jesuits. As in 1627 it was followed by a summary of the five orders (“Brief traicte des cinq ordres des colomnes”). Only the privilege and the author's sonnet to his book are missing. The text, recomposed for the circumstance, is identical to the first edition with a few minimal gaps in the formatting; the headword at the end of the treatise on carpentry, which put forward errors (letters omitted in the plates, words misunderstood) is also taken up in its entirety. The plates are identical except for the numbers of the drawings. The 1650 publication, evidence of the success of the treatise was above all the occasion for Georges Griveau to correct the countless pagination errors of the previous edition and certain incoherences in the numbering of the images, which spoiled the first edition, put out partly in the absence of the author (“Au lecteur candide”, p. 170) and with apparently fairly unqualified personnel. Some double pages which had not been paginated, were from then on (pp. 57-58, 90-91). In the plates the numerals of the illustrations have been standardized; in principle the drawings are all designated by Roman numerals, with a very few exceptions. There still remain some errors. In spite of new misprints, the 1650 edition can be recommended for its quite good quality. It was reproduced in the Bibliothèque de l'architecture française in 2004 (Phénix editions) with a preface by François Le Bœuf.

Frédérique Lemerle (Centre national de la recherche Scientifique,
Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours) – 2008

Critical bibliography

F. Le Bœuf, "Mathurin Jousse, maître serrurier à La Flèche et théoricien d'architecture (vers 1575-1645)", In situ, 1, 2001.

P. Le Bœuf, "La Bibliothèque de Mathurin Jousse : une tentative de reconstitution", In situ, 1, 2001.

E. Pasquier & V. Dauphin, Imprimeurs et libraires de l’Anjou, Angers, Société anonyme des éditions de l’Ouest, 1932, pp. 311-326.

É.-C. Pecquet, "Mathurin Jousse, architecte et ingénieur de la ville de La Flèche au XVII^e siècle", Cahiers Fléchois, 6, 1984, pp. 28-41.

J.-M. Pérouse de Montclos, L’architecture à la française, XVI^e, XVII^e, XVIII^e siècles, Paris, Picard, 1982, pp. 96-99.

R.-A. Weigert, Inventaire du Fonds Français. Graveurs du XVII^e siècle..., Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, 5, 1968, "Jousse (Mathurin)", pp. 615-617.