BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE

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Transcribed version of the text

French

     The edition of Hans Blum’s treatise published by François Demasso in approximately 1650, the date in which he set up shop at the sign of the Juste Paix, on rue Mercière, apparently took up again the one that Jean Lemaistre had printed in 1562: the titles are strictly identical and the typography and spelling of the text as well as the style of the plates are clearly indicative of the 16th century. Demasso added a sixth plate representing the Solomonic column to Blum's five folio plates of the five orders. He explicitly repeated Vignola’s method as it was set out in the numerous editions of the Regola published since 1562.
     The occasion for this re-issue was perhaps linked to the success of the preceding publications. In the appendix on the orders added to the Théâtre de l'art de charpentier published in La Flèche for the first time in 1627 and reedited in 1650, Mathurin Jousse said that he drew his inspiration "des cinq ordres des colonnes qui se vendent en feuilles, imprimées à Lyon", which indicates the 1562 edition. Jousse added a Solomonic column, taken from Vignola. Perhaps Demasso took advantage of the revival of topicality that Jousse's treatise gave to the plates to re-issue the Cinq ordres des colomnes de l’architecture as it had appeared in 1562, and to add the Solomonic column taken from Vignola and introduced by Jousse.

Yves Pauwels (Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours) – 2009

Critical bibliography

H.-L. Baudrier, Bibliographie lyonnaise: recherches sur les imprimeurs, libraires, relieurs et fondeurs de lettres de Lyon au XVIe siècle, Paris, de Nobele, 1964, 1, p. 244.

S. Martin de Vesvrotte & H. Pommier (ed.), Dictionnaire des graveurs-éditeurs et marchands d’estampes à Lyon aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, Lyon, PUL, 2002.

Y. Pauwels, "Les éditions françaises du traité de Hans Blum aux Pays-Bas (XVIe et XVIIe siècles)", In Monte Artium (Journal of the Royal Library of Belgium), 1, 2008, pp. 123-134.

Y. Pauwels, "Hans Blum et les Français, 1550-1650", Scholion. Mitteilungsblatt der Stiftung Bibliothek Werner Oechslin, 6, 2010, pp. 77-88.