L’ART D’APPAREIL,
QUI FAIT UNE PARTIE ESSENTIELLE
DE L’ARCHITECTURE,
NECESSAIRE AUX ARCHITECTS,
ENTREPRENEURS, APPAREILLEURS,
ET
TAILLEURS DE PIERRES.
As the title suggests, the book is about the art of the device, which is an essential part of architecture.
The book is aimed at architects, contractors, equipment manufacturers and stonemasons, which can also be read from the title. In other words, to people who design, plan or construct buildings.
However, further down on the title page it says that the book is dedicated to Monsieur DE VIGNY, who was the King’s architect, his Royal Academy, the Royal Society of London and others.
The book is divided into six parts, the individual parts being announced with e.g. ”L’ART D’APPAREIL, TROISIÉME PARTIE.”. However, the numbering of the pages goes through and does not start all over again after each part. The pages are numbered up to p. 82, but then there are eleven more pages, which are handwritten and have more sketches. Before the first page, however, there are five blank pages and the title page, which has not yet been numbered.
There are many geometric drawings in the book with arcs, rays and special angles. Some of the pages with the sketches on them fold out and are up to three pages long. The pages opposite a page with a drawing are blank so that there are no imprints of the sketches.
The pages are approximately the size of DIN A4.
On the title page is written ”PREMIERE PARTIE” This suggests that the author may have planned or written a sequel.
The book was written by Menand in Paris in 1756. As one can read on the title page, Monsieur Menand was a professor.
I was interested, if there were any other books written in 1756 and so I came across this book. Other similarities are that the book was published with educational purposes, in my case for the Students of the Theresian Knight’s Academy in Vienna. Another similarity is that the book contains a large amount of geometric drawings and that some of them are on pages which can be folded and are up to three pages long. It is very interesting to read the observation on how the book is built up. To mention how the pages are numbered and that there might be a sequel. It brings the process of book writing in that time closer to my understanding.
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