Title of the concept: WOOD CONSTRUCTION
When I first opened „L‘art de charpenterie“, I was overwhelmed by the amount of drawings and illustrations which led to the presumption of a large amount of information on various topics. Some historians claim that the book was able to reach its significance because it manages to describe coherent rules of art and respect for the wood material in an accessible manner. It uses a refined describtion of techniques and illustration methodologies to combine all the „know- how“ that a carpenter must master. This is a very detailed collection. Carpenters can use this book as a representation of their entire profession. From Stairs to specific structures, to various types of buildings and all their surroundings such as wood preparation, processing, sawing, wiring, implementation of wood, etc.
„Pour faire les Tenons.“
(„?“)
„Pour mettre les pieces de bois de niveau.“
(„To bring the pieces of wood to a level.“)
„Autrement.“
(„Otherwise.“)
„Pour piquer le bois.“
(„To stab the wood.“)
- Jousse M.(1627), ENSBA. La Fleche, p. 6
As already mentioned, Jousse‘s book has many illustrations; his words are used to explain the picture material. Despite their charm, they‘re only crude, and suggest only the most basic and over-designed conception of wood construction. Every now and then he compares similar looking archictectural parts to each other. He enlarged some of the parts of the plan, so you can see each and every detail of the construction, like for example how the different pieces of wood are linked between them, the frame of a two- core staircase or the characterization of the technical parts of windmills.
Many figures are accompanied by text, explaining the overall design of the book and how to easily implement it. Mathurin Jousse managed to leave a detailed description of the purest traditional workflow of an Carpenters, point by point.
„Car si nous mesurons l’excellence de chaque art à ses effets, nous trouverons qu’il n’y en a point qui en produisent de si beaux et deléctables à l’oeil, pour les belles symmetries et proportion qui s’y gardent.“
- Jousse M.(1627), ENSBA. La Fleche, p. 20
(„Because if we measure the excellence of every art by its effects, we will find that there are none that produce so beautiful and delicious for the eye, for the beautiful symmetries and proportions that are preserved in them.“)
Some of these works reflect the thoughts and trends of their time, but today they‘re considered to be criticised. However, as I mentioned before, they belong to the history of French thought and may have scientific or historical significance.
KEYOWORDS: wood, construction, carpenter
Brikena Avdija, 18-123-778