Pierre Le Muet

Pierre Le Muet (1591 — 1669) was a French architect famous for his book "Manière de bâtir pour toutes sortes de personnes" (1623 and 1647) ["The way to build for persons of every degree". At the time he was an "architecte ordinaire du Roy" and in charge of designs for the fortifications of Picardy. An enlarged second edition (1647) added a second volume of "Augmentations de nouveaux bastimens." Its engraved illustrations mark the earliest appearance of Jean Marot as an engraver of architectural designs.] , and for the châteaux he constructed, most notably Tanlay in Burgundy, as well as some modest houses in Paris, the grandest of which, the Hôtel d’Avaux (1644-1650) survives and has recently been restored to a semblance of its seveneenth-century condition.

Le Muet had accompanied the royal armies in the south of France. His "Manière de bâtir" gave designs for town houses in the Parisian mode, designed to occupy eleven lots from the simplest most constricted plot of urban land to "hôtels particuliers" of middling importance. Claude Mignot points out that his model in this enterprise was Sebastiano Serlio, whose sixth book, "elle habitationi de tutti li gradi degli huomini" was already circulating in France in manuscript; Salomon de Brosse's manuscript copy is at the Avery Library of Columbia University. The additional designs in 1645 show Le Muet the builder of three Parisian residences, the maison Tubeuf [Built in 1643-1644 for the président Jacques Tubeuf (Mignot)..] , and the hôtels Coquet and d’Avaux (1644-50), and of three châteaux: Château de Pont-sur-Seine, Aube (burned down in 1814), the Château de Tanlay and the Château de Chavigny at Lerné (Indre-et-Loire). Marot worked from drawings furnished by Le Muet which corrected some irregularities demanded by exigencies of the actual sites, regularizing the court at Tanlay, for instance (Mignot) or giving an elevation and section never executed at the hôtel d’Avaux.

Two further Paris editions of Le Muet's work appeared after his death, in 1663-64 and 1681, and in London a translation was published by Robert Pricke, "The Art of Sound Building" (1670).

Le Muet was also the author of a small volume, "Palladio, habillé à la française", which appeared in 1645.

See also the following French architects of the first half of the 17th century:
*Salomon de Brosse
*Liberal Bruant
*Jacques Lemercier
*Louis Le Vau
*François Mansart
*Charles Métezeau

Notes

References

*Claude Mignot, bibliographical note on Pierre Le Muet, "Maniere de bien bastir..." 2nd ed. 1645]

External links

* [http://www.cesr.univ-tours.fr/Architectura/Traite/Notice/CESR_40382.asp Claude Mignot, "Manière de bâtir pour toutes sortes de personnes"] This article is based on Mignot's information.
* [http://www.mahj.org/gb/01_visitez/2_hotel.htm Hôtel d’Avaux, Paris]