Descriptions des arts et métiers

Résumé du livre

The volumes are descriptions of the arts and handicrafts of the time. A typical section consists of a description of the raw materials, a description of the tools and other equipment, plus a third section shows in detail the various steps the workmen must go through to produce their end product. The most active and influential contributors of many were René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur and Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau. Others who contributed were Charles Germain Saint-Aubin, Auguste-Denis Fougeroux de Bondaroy, François Alexandre Garsault, Joseph Jérôme Le Française de Lalande, Jean Antoine l'abbé Nollet, Jean-François-Clément Morand, Charles René Fourcroy de Ramecourt, Jean-Jacques Perret, Jean-Garffin Gallon, Jacques-François Demachy, René Martin Dudin, Jean Paulet, Roland de la Platière, Gaspard Le Compasseur Le Marquis de Courtivron, Etienne-Jean Bouchu, André Jacob Roubo, de Beauvais-Raseau, Michel-Ferdinand le duc de Chaulnes, Paul Jacques Malouin, Pierre-Charles Le Monnier, D. François Bedos de Celles, Pierre La Vieil, Le Comte de Milly, Salmon, Pierre Joseph Macquer, père Hulot, J. R. Lucotte, Gabriel Jars, Frederik Henrik Chapman, Charles Romme, and Emanuel Swedemborg. The Royal Academy also drew on foreign talent when appropriate. Two Swedish writers produced the treatise on ship-building and the treatise on iron respectively. The arts and handicrafts include a large part of French industrial activity. The work derives in a way from the activities of Louis XIV's famous First Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who established the Academie Royale des Sciences, with such scholars as Descartes and Pascal. He directed that all the machines then utilized in the practice of handicrafts both at home and abroad should be described. Work started in 1699, and got underway in the first part of the 18th century, but the first volume was printed in 1761. Also in the collection are additional copies of: Roubo's L'Art du Treillageur, ou Menuiserie des Jardins..., and Saint-Aubin's L'Art du Brodeur. See: Brunet, volume 2, part 1, pp. 618-620; Graesse, volume 2, pp. 366-367. Gift from Paul Mellon, 1997