BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE

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Transcribed version of the text

French

     Jean Berjon, from a family of Genevese printers originally from Lyon, republished the Livre d’architecture which came out for the first time in 1559. Settled in Paris in the 1610s in Saint-Jean-de-Beauvais street at the shop called the “Cheval Volant”, he published notably Samuel Champlain’s accounts of his travels (1613) and republished the Théâtre d’agriculture by Olivier de Serres (1608). In this Protestant context, it is not surprising that he took up again Androuet du Cerceau’s book, and used the copper plates that Jacques II had kept. He reset the texts by embellishing them with decorative bands, lacking in the original edition, and with new initials.

Yves Pauwels (Centre d’études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours) – 2012

Critical bibliography

F. Boudon, "Les livres d’architecture de Jacques Androuet du Cerceau", J. Guillaume (ed.), Les traités d’architecture de la Renaissance, Paris, Picard, 1988, pp. 367-396.

P. Fuhring, "L’œuvre gravé", P. Fuhring & J. Guillaume (ed.), Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, "un des plus grands architectes qui se soient jamais trouvés en France", Paris, Picard/Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, 2010, pp. 55-56.

H. von Geymüller, Les Du Cerceau. Leur vie et leur œuvre d’après les nouvelles recherches, Paris/London, Rouam/Wood & Co, 1887.