BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE

Consult in image mode

Transcribed version of the text

French

     MS Fr 381 is the final manuscript of the Edifices antiques de Rome by Antoine Desgodets, before its publication in 1682. It comes from Colbert’s private library and was probably given to him by the author himself. Therefore it can be dated later than manuscript 2718 of the Institut de France, although no reference to it appears in the minutes of the Académie Royale d’Architecture. Thus it might have been written between 1678, the date of the last recommendations of the Académie Royale d’Architecture, and January 1679, the date in which the accounts of the King’s Buildings (Comptes des Batiments du Roi, ed. Jules Guiffrey, col. 1088) mention payment to Nicolas Guérard for the first engravings. It is the last attempt at organizing Desgodet’s material, collected in Rome between 1676 and 1677. The text is the same as the 1682 edition, and the 138 drawings in it were transformed into copperplates by nine engravers of the King. This manuscript is no doubt the result of corrections and indications given to Desgodets by the Académie Royale d’Architecture, which had carefully studied his first drawings from December 13, 1677. The Academy had hoped to transform some of Desgodets’ representations into the same scale, in order to better compare them with those of earlier authors such as Serlio, Labacco, Fréart de Chambray and especially Palladio. Following the academicians’ advice, Desgodets gave prominence to illustrations of the details of the architectural orders ; these are in fact illustrated by new methods of representation such as the drawings “par le milieu” of the section of the capitals and of the pilasters and columns (the Pantheon, the temple of Saturn [the temple of Concord], the temple of Antonius and Faustina), and were often accompanied by a “corner” drawing of the capitals of the columns. Desgodets refrained from making reconstructions of various antique monuments, as his predecessors sometimes did. This attitude was probably also due to the members of the Academy, since the manuscript 2718 of the Institut includes some attempts at reconstruction, which were not to be found in the final MS fr. 381. For example, it is the case with the roof of the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, and with the plan of the “Temple of Peace” [Basilica of Maxentius], which were very probably inspired by Palladio’s book IV, and with the “Temple of Bacchus” [Santa Costanza]. Desgodets ascribed great importance to the objective representation of the ruins as the traveller found them. A large part of his text is devoted to the study of the differences from previous authors, more particularly Palladio. Desgodets mentions two types of differences : the exact representation of the antique edifices, and the accuracy of their measurements. Comparison with Palladio’s work actually reveals an important error relating to the real length of the Vicentine foot, which is in fact borrowed from Fréart de Chambray (0,352 m) and not verified in situ at Vicenza (0,357 m), invalidating thus any attempt at comparison. In spite of Desgodets’s claims, Palladio’s measurements are probably closer to his own, due to this important error. His comparative work with Serlio and Fréart de Chambray is similarly biased owing to the complex operations that Desgodets had been obliged to carry out during the two years he worked on it. In the case of Fréart de Chambray, Desgodets had in fact to convert into pieds-du-roi the measurements indicated solely in modules on the engravings of the Parallèle de l’architecture antique et de la moderne. For Serlio’s Terzo libro (1540), he had to convert the measurements in ancient Roman palms indicated in the text (and not on the engravings themselves) into modules and then into pieds-du-roi. If we can praise Desgodets for his search for precision, today we can seriously doubt the scientific validity of the totality of his comparative work. The manuscript ms. Fr. 381 of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France represents the culmination of four years of intensive work in search of the accuracy of Desgodets’s measurements on the ancient Roman buildings of the Eternal City.

Louis Cellauro, Gilbert Richaud (Lyon) – 2015

Critical bibliography

L. Cellauro & G. Richaud, Antoine Desgodets : Les Edifices Antiques de Rome, Facsimile edition of Manuscript 2718 at the Institut de France, with transcriptions, annotations and reproduction of the plates of the volume published in 1682, Studi sulla cultura dell’antico, 7, Rome, De Luca Editore d’Arte, 2008.

L. Cellauro & G. Richaud, “Desgodets et Palladio : les divergences dans les relevés des monuments antiques”, in R. Carvais (ed.), Les nouveaux savoirs de l’architecte moderne. Desgodets, entre théorie et pratique, proceedings of the colloquium organised by INHA, November 24-25, 2014, to be published.