BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE

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Transcribed version of the text

French

     L’architecture françoise des bastimens particuliers published in 1673 differs from the original 1624 edition in the intervention of François Blondel, "Professeur et directeur de l’Académie Royale d’Architecture", who presented and annotated the book.  This second rehash would itself be completed and reedited in 1685.
After a dedication to Colbert, Blondel gives a rather long biography of Louis Savot, then details the limits of his intervention: "Mais comme cette matière a beaucoup changé depuis le temps que cet Auteur a écrit, et que l’on a maintenant un goût différent de ce qu’il enseigne dans la plupart des préceptes qu’il nous a laissés, j’ai cru que je rendais un service utile au public si j’ajoutais en forme de notes dans la suite du livre ce que j’ai remarqué n’être plus conforme à notre usage; je marque aussi en passant ce qui se pratique communément parmi nous, afin qu’on se puisse servir utilement de tant d’instructions excellentes que cet Auteur a ramassées et expliquées dans son ouvrage; ainsi je me contente de rectifier seulement ce qui paraît avoir été changé depuis le temps qu’il a écrit", that is to say observations on staircases, fireplaces, tree-bordered paths and the prices of materials.  In fact, the corrections he made to the initial text do not fundamentally modify his advice.
It was also absolutely necessary to update the "bibliographie" given by Savot at the end of the book.  Neither inventory nor ideal bibliography, this list of books on architecture recommended by Savot is one of the main original aspects of his remarks.  In fact its contents give a precise idea on what made up the culture of a well-read person, but also that of an architect at the beginning of the 17^th century.  But its very existence- it is probably the first one of its kind- reveals a new era in architectural creation.  From then on, builders had access to book knowledge which had absolutely no comparison with that of their predecessors in the Renaissance.  When Blondel took things in hand, it was obviously necessary to add a few essential works: the translation of Vitruvius by Claude Perrault (1684), whose imminent appearance he confirmed, that of Palladio by Roland Fréart de Chambray (1650), and the Parallèle by the same author; the books of Abraham Bosse and of Girard Desargues, and finally Blondel’s own works.  These notes also bring a critical point of view, practically missing from Savot’s text, full of information on the vision that the contemporaries of Louis XIV could have had on the artistic literature of the Renaissance.  Here we are not surprised to read praise of Palladio, Scamozzi and Vignola, and criticism of Serlio’s or Philibert De l’Orme’s "gothique" taste.  It is more surprising to discover that the old treatise of Sagredo was still in use.

Yves Pauwels (Centre d’études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours) – 2006

Critical bibliography

J. Ache, "Techniques de construction et formes architecturales au XVII^e siècle", Revue de la Société d'études du XVII^e siècle, 36-37, 1957, pp. 273-286.

J.-P. Babelon, Demeures parisiennes sous Henri IV et Louis XIII, Paris, Hazan, 1991.

M.-A. Fleury, Documents du minutier central concernant les peintres, les sculpteurs et les graveurs au XVII^e siècle (1600-1650), Paris, SEVPEN, 1969, 1, p. 512.

A. Gerbino, François Blondel : Architecture, Erudition, and the Scientific Revolution, London/New York, Routledge, 2010.

C. Parkhurst, "Louis Savot's Nova Antiqua Color Theory, 1609", J. Bruyn, J. A. Emmons, E. de Jongh & D. P. Snoep (ed.), Album amicorum J.-G. Van Gelder, The Hague, Nijhoff, 1973, pp. 242-247.

Y. Pauwels, "La bibliographie d’architecture de Louis Savot (1624)", Journal de la Renaissance, 5, 2007, pp. 371-382.

H. Rambach, "Louis Savot, la modernité d’un regard novateur", Europäische numismatische Literatur im 17. Jahrhundert, special issue, 2005, pp. 59-67.