BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE

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Transcribed version of the text

French

     The German translation s.l.s.n. of Boillot's book is generally attributed to the Strasbourg printer Antoine Bertram, who, the year before, had published an adaptation of Boillot's treatise on pyrotechnics (Modelles, artifices de feu et divers instrumens de guerre..., 1598) entitled Artifices Defeu, & divers instruments de guerre. Das ist Künstlich Feurwerck und Kriegs Instrumenta, 1603.
This "counterfeit" of the Nouveaux pourtraitz, to repeat Paulette Choné's term, repeats all the engravings of the original version, alternating woodcuts and copperplates in the same order; but contrary to the French edition, each engraving is placed on half of the page, facing the text. As for the text itself, it is freely adapted; the translator added numerous anecdotes about the tiger, the giraffe and even the monkey. A few variations appear in the translations of the titles: for example "De l'âne" becomes "Von dem guten Esel", "on the good donkey", and "Du mouton" becomes "Von dem Wider, ein Anders", that is "more about the ram"- not without reason, for the animal represented has horns. The introductory pieces were shortened: only a six-page headword remains ("Vorred, An den Kunstliebenden"). The dedication and the poetry have disappeared.
One notes that contrary to Boillot, the German translator dedicates the book to people in the trade, artists, foremen, painters, goldsmiths and sculptors of all kinds ("Allen Künstlern, Werckmeistern, Maalern, Bildhauwern, Schnitzlern, Goldschmiden, Schreinern, Glasmalern, und allen Liebhabern dieser Künsten"). This dedication is reminiscent of the one in Hans Blum's treatise on the orders, also addressed to "allen kunstrychen Buwherren, Werkmeisteren, Steinmetzen, Maleren, Bildhouweren, Goldschmiden, Schreyneren, ouch allen die sich des Circkels von richtschyts gebruchend zu grossen Nutz und Vorteil dienstlich" (Von den fünff Sülen.., 1550). The picturesque animal terms by Boillot were to appear usable in the ornate context of Germanic art at the turn of the 17^th century.

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

Critical bibliography

J. Boillot, Nouveaux Pourtraitz et figures des Termes pour user en l’architecture..., new edition in facsimile with critical presentation, index et glossary by P. Choné and G. Viard, Paris, Klincksieck, 1995, p. 66.

P. Choné, "Les Nouveaux Pourtraits et Figures de Termes de Joseph Boillot, à Langres en 1592", S. Deswarte-Rosa (ed.), Sebastiano Serlio à Lyon. Architecture et imprimerie, Lyon, Mémoire active, 2004, pp. 466-469.

E. Forssman, Säule und Ornament. Studien zur Problem des Manierismus in den nordischen Säulenbücher und Vorlageblättern des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, Stockholm/Uppsala, Almqvist & Wiksell, 1956, p. 145.