BOOKS ON ARCHITECTURE

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Transcribed version of the text

French

     This edition of Julien Mauclerc's treatise was published in 1648, on the initiative of Pierre Daret, Parisian publisher and engraver. One can recognize the 1600 text, with a modernised or modified vocabulary (for example “tuscanique” becomes “toscan”, “residu” “restant”). Daret does away with the precise references to Serlio's Book III, but adds annotations to the figures he has added to the plates, among which is a method of drawing an Ionic volute explicitly borrowed from Vignola. The print is smaller in order to allow each chapter to take up two pages instead of the four it did in 1600. The dedication to Henri IV, Mauclerc’s long “proème” and preliminary remarks are replaced by a new dedication, and a new word to the reader. At the end of the volume there are five plates representing the intercolumniations, the orders according to Palladio, Scamozzi and Vignola, and finally a few rules of perspective. All of this is commented on in an “avertissement”. Two plates coming from the original edition conclude the volume. This time, it benefited from a privilege. It was provided with new initials and new border decorations.
The engravings were embellished through the addition of elements in the spaces left free by Boyvin. These motifs were purposely inspired by Vignola : in the view of the bottom of a Doric capital, one recognizes the Farnese iris of plate XIV of the Regola. The Doric chapter is also made up of details of the frieze and soffit of the cornice. The plates given over to the Ionic order are completed by details of frieze and transom moldings, and two diagrams which enable one to draw a volute according to Philandrier’s and Vignola’s method (but the author uses only the latter as his authority). There are also a profile view of a capital with the baluster, a half-pediment and ornamental details of the entablatures. For the Corinthian order, he adds transom moldings, a view of the joining of the large capital scrolls, a half-pediment and details of the entablature (frieze and soffit). The plates representing the composite order also include an example of a pediment and ornamental details.
Daret’s additions add to the heterogeneous side of the work, but from this point of view they are very consistent. In fact, in introducing Vignola, Palladio and Scamozzi they bring the material up to date using an eclectic method which Mauclerc used with Blum, Serlio, Labacco and De l’Orme at the beginning of the century. They were left behind by the three Italians whom Fréart designated as the three modern masters in 1650. They gave French architecture the essential part of its repertoire in the domain of the orders. Moreover, placing the orders here in parallel position reminds one of the method that the same Fréart developed in his own Parallèle.
The Ensba copy presents a few typographical anomalies. The first two pages of the “contenu et interpretation” of the frontispiece are inverted. The first plate representing each of the orders follows the last plate of the preceding order, and comes before the text concerning it (in other copies like the one at the BnF, available for consultation on the Gallica website, the plates always follow the text).
Apparently having no great repercussion in France, it had on the contrary good success in England, where it was translated and published in 1669 (London, Robert Pricke).

Yves Pauwels (Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance, Tours) - 2006

Critical bibliography

J. Châtenay, La vie intellectuelle en Aunis et Saintonge de 1540 à 1610, La Rochelle, Éditions du Quartier Latin, 1959.

J. Levron, René Boyvin, graveur angevin du XVI^e siècle, Angers, Petit, 1941.

S. Lhopiteau, Pierre Daret, graveur, éditeur, marchand, peintre : étude monographique. Dissertation, Université de Paris-IV (Paris-Sorbonne), 2005.

M. Marrache-Gouraud, "Cabinets et curieux du Poitou, aux XVI^e et XVII^e siècles", P. Martin & D. Moncond'huy (ed.), Curiosité et cabinets de curiosités, Neuilly, Atlande, 2004, pp. 93-108.

Y. Pauwels, "Hans Blum et les Français, 1550-1650", Scholion. Mitteilungsblatt der Stiftung Bibliothek Werner Oechslin, 6, 2010, pp. 77-88.

D. Thomson, "Architecture et humanisme au XVI^e siècle. Le Premier Livre d’Architecture de Julien Mauclerc", Bulletin monumental, 158, 1980, pp. 7-40.

D. Thomson, "Le Premier Livre d’Architecture de Mauclerc, à La Rochelle, chez Jérôme Haultin en 1600", S. Deswarte-Rosa (ed), Sebastiano Serlio à Lyon. Architecture et imprimerie, Lyon, Mémoire active, 2004, p. 471.