BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE

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Transcribed version of the text

French

     This edition of Jacques Besson's Theatre, presented and annotated by François Béroalde, closely follows the first one dated August, 1578. The only difference is in the first four leaves. The main change is the dedication, addressed here to Francis d'Hastings, a young British nobleman traveling first to Geneva and then to Basel. In Béroalde's dedication, dated October 1, 1578, it probably was a matter of attracting a new patron. It does not appear that the goal was reached.
This attempt had a lot in common with the pugnacious editorial policy conducted by Claude Juge, a big businessman. Starting in 1577, he invested in the publishing in Geneva, in association with Jean de Laon, a master-printer and burgher from Geneva.
Locating the publication in Lyon avoided the necessity of obtaining a printing authorisation from the Petit Conseil in Geneva by using the royal privilege obtained in Orléans in 1569 for the first version of Besson's work.

Hélène Vérin (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Paris) – 2008

Critical bibliography

Béroalde de Verville (1556-1626), Cahiers V.-L. Saulnier, 13, Paris, PENS, 1996.

J. Besson, Instrumentorum et machinarum quas Jacobus Bessonus Delphinas mathematicus et a machinis practer alia excogitavit multisque vigiliis et laboribus excaluit ad zerum multarum intellectu difficillimarum explicationem et totius Reipublicae utilitatem (facsimile of the 1569=c1571 edition), Paris, Jardin de Flore, 1978.

A. G. Keller, "The Missing Years of Jacques Besson, Inventor of Machines, Teacher of Mathematics, Distiller of Oils, and Huguenot Pastor", Technology and Culture, 14, 1, january 1973, pp. 28-39.

A. G. Keller, "A manuscript Version of Jacques Besson’s Book of Machines, with his unpublished Principles of Mechanics", B. S. Hall & D. C. West (ed.), On Pre-Modern Technology and Science, Malibu, Undena Publications, 1976, pp. 75-103.

L. Dolza & H. Vérin, "Figurer la mécanique: l’énigme des théâtres de machines de la Renaissance", Revue d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, 51-2, 2004-2, pp. 7-37.

L. Dolza & H. Vérin, Theatrum instrumentorum et machinarum : Lione, 1578 di Jacques Besson, introduction, facsimile of the 1578 edition, Rome, Edizioni dell’Elefante, 2001.

E. Droz, Chemins de l’Hérésie, textes et documents, 4, Geneva, Slatkine, 1976, pp. 271-374.

D. Hillard, "Jacques Besson et son Théâtre des instruments mathématiques", Revue française d'histoire du livre, 22, 1979, pp. 5-38.

D. Hillard, "Jacques Besson et son Théâtre des instruments mathématiques : recherches complémentaires", Revue française d'histoire du livre, 30, 1981, pp. 47-69.