BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE
Author(s) |
Bullant, Jean |
Title |
Reigle generalle d’architecture... |
Imprint |
Rouen, D. Ferrand, 1647 |
Localisation |
ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, RAR 88 fol. |
Subject |
Antiquities, Orders |
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Transcribed version of the text
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French
The last
known edition of the Reigle by Jean Bullant appeared in 1647,
at David II Ferrand’s printshop in Rouen. One of a dynasty of
booksellers, this rather picturesque individual- he had to pay a few
fines for having composed and printed some "lascives et déshonnêtes"
pieces- was especially known in Normandy as the author of a Muse
normande in "langage purin", that is, in local dialect.
Nothing
is known of the circumstances which brought him to be interested in
architecture. What is sure is that he had a very coherent policy concerning
the reedition of treatises : "Lecteur bénévole, ayant
découvert à Paris ce petit trésor caché
depuis quatre-vingts années, & l’ayant en possession,
je n’ai voulu te cacher ce talent, ainsi que ceux qui le possédaient
entre leurs mains ; ains je lui ai voulu faire voir le jour, sachant
qu’il y courait de l’intérêt public pour l’embellissement
& structure des beaux bâtiments de France […]. Tu le
recevras donc d’aussi bon cœur que je te le présente,
espérant en bref remettre entre les mains les œuvres de
Philibert de l’Orme (étant possesseur de toutes les figures
qui sont en icelles, ainsi que du Vitruve)". In fact, Ferrand had
very probably bought the material from Marnef and Cavellat, Bullant’s
first publishers, perhaps from the heirs of Regnault II Chaudière,
who had probably himself salvaged the treasures of the Cavellat dynasty
: plates from the 1572 Vitruvius, some of Bullant’s from 1568
and 1619 and some De l’Orme plates from 1626.
In any case,
the publisher from Rouen did not take into account the edition of the
Reigle published by Sittart in 1619. The edition he proposes
takes up the 1568 edition much more faithfully, especially in the introductory
parts. The dedication to the maréchal de Montmorency, completely
obsolete here, the headword and the word to the reader are almost exactly
the same. The only thing missing is the original privilege, obviously
useless, replaced by a word to the reader by Ferrand. The text, recomposed,
is very faithful to the 1568 text, with a few variations in detail (for
example, in folio [B 3v°], "Or d’où pourriez
vous estimer..." becomes "D’où estimeriez-vous...").
The folios remain numbered ; the order of the plates does not follow
the 1619 corrections and one can find the two types of folios meant
for the Corinthian capital. The editor reuses original plates from the
Premier tome by Philibert De l’Orme. The engraving representing
"l’architecte prudent" (f. 51v°) was used for the
title page and the window design inserted between folios 264 and 265
acts as a framework for the sonnet "Aux Architectes français"
at the end of the book.
Is this
the sign of an "exil provincial", as Jean-Marie Pérouse
de Montclos said about Philibert De l’Orme’s edition, published
in 1648 by the same Ferrand? It would seem that this edition of Bullant’s
was quite successful when one considers the number of copies at the
Bibliothèque nationale ; in fact there are more copies of this
version of the Reigle than of the others.
Yves Pauwels (Centre d’études supérieures
de la Renaissance, Tours) – 2006
Critical bibliography
D. Ferrand, La Muse Normande, Rouen, Société
rouennaise des bibliophiles, 1891-1894. 5 vols.
F.-C. James, Jean Bullant. Recherches sur l’architecture
française au XVIème siècle, thesis at l’École
Nationale de Chartes, 1968; abstract in École Nationale des
Chartes, Positions de thèses, 1968, pp. 101-109.
Y. Pauwels, "La fortune de la Reigle de Jean Bullant", Journal
de la Renaissance, 3, 2005, pp. 111-119.
J.-M. Pérouse de Montclos, "Les éditions des traités
de Philibert De L’Orme au XVIIe siècle", J. Guillaume (ed.), Les Traités
d’architecture à la Renaissance, Paris, Picard, 1988,
pp. 355-365.
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