François Blondel

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Blondel, Nicolas-François

"François Blondel, was born in 1617 and died in 1686. He was a French architect. In 1672 he became director of the Academy of Architecture. Blondel's writings, which exerted great influence, include Cours d'architecture enseigné dans l'Académie royale d'architecture (2 vol., 1675–83) and Nouvelle Manière de fortifier les places (1684). He advocated a strict adherence to a classical and rationalist doctrine of architecture.
His nephew, Jacques François Blondel,. 1705–74, opened the first French private school of architecture in 1739. As architect to the king he devised plans for the civic beautification of Metz and Strasbourg. He designed the town hall and Place d'Armes at Strasbourg and the west portal of the cathedral at Metz. His published works include L'Architecture Française (1752), valuable for its engraved views of buildings that no longer exist, and Cours d' Architecture; ou, Traité de la Décoration (6 vol., 1771–77)."

Source: "The Colombia Encyclopedia" Sixth Edition

Nicholas-François Blondel designed and built the Porte St-Denis Arch in 1672. This arch was probably the inspiration for the later Arch of Triumph that Napoleon commissioned around 1806. The work on the Arch of Triumph was not completed until 1836.

Porte St-Denis

The icon on the left is the link to the "Catalog of the Scientific Community" web site concerning Nicholas-François Blondel. This is a very good and well written site and a "must" visit! Or, review the following extract from that web site!

Nicholas-François Blondel

1. Dates:

Born: Ribemont (France), c.10 June 1618 (baptized on 15 June).
Died: Paris, 21 January 1686
Date info: Dates Certain
Lifespan: 68 Years

2. Father:

Occupation: Government Official
His father, Guillaume-François Blondel, was master of petitions to the queen mother and king's attorney at the bailiff's court of Vermandois. He was also mayor of Vermandois several times. Finally he was granted letters of nobility in 1654. He died in 1663, nearly bankrupt.
No clear information on financial status during Blondel's youth.

3. Nationality:

Birth: Ribemont,France
Career: France
Death: Paris, France

4. Education:

Schooling: No University
No formal education; he entered the army at age 17.

5. Religion:

Affiliation: Catholic (assumed)

6. Scientific Disciplines:

Primary: Engineering

As a famous military engineer and architect, he wrote and published many works on engineering and architecture. In his Cours d'architecture (1675-1683), he formulated the rule of art, approved by the Royal Academy of Architecture and applied universally ever since.

7. Means of Support:

Primary: Government, Patronage, Engineering
Secondary: Academia, Military1635-52: he was basically a soldier and sailor during these years. He was the only military man I met for some time, but there were eventually others and I instituted the category.
In 1635 he became an infantry cadet and fought against the Imperial forces in the Thirty Years War.

Between 1640-1652 he held a variety of positions, a few of them in naval engineering, but he was essentially a fighting soldier and sailor.

In 1651, he was named sergent de bataille, a high position.
1651, he worked on the fortifications on the coast of Provence.
In 1652, he was named Maréchal des Camps (Brigadier-general)
In 1652, he became tutor to the son of Loménie de Brienne, & Secretary of State for foreign affairs.
In 1655, he succeeded Gassendi as lecturer in mathematics at the Collège Royale, with an annual salary of 600 livres.
1656-59, Loménie de Brienne entrusted him with several diplomatic misssions; he was given the title, Conseiller d'État, to facilitate the missions.
In 1662, he became commissioner general of the navy.
1662-8, syndic administrator of the Collège Royale.
1664, sat on a marine military engineering commission under Colbert; he also worked on individual projects.
1666, a senior member of a military expedition to the Antilles, under orders from Colbert de Terron.
In 1669, Colbert sponsored Blondel's admission to the Royal Academy of Sciences as a geometer (topographer).
In 1671, he was appointed professor at, and director of, the Royal Academy of Architecture. In 1672, Louis XIV put him in charge of public works for the city of Paris, and through the 70's he carried out a number of major public works and city-planning projects.
In 1673, he was made tutor to the dauphin in mathematics, belles lettres, and military art.
His total salary from the professorship at the Collège Royale, membership in the Académie des sciences, and directorship of the architectural academy was 4800 livres. When he died he left his wife debts of 60,000 livres.
In one sense, all of his engineering work is subsumed under "Governmental employee" and "Patronage." However, I want the catalogue to indicate that he worked as an engineer.

8. Patronage:

Types: Court Official, Government Official
Louis XIV. See above.
Loménie de Brienne, Secretary of State for foreign affairs. See above.

Colbert. See above.

Cardinal Richelieu was his first major patron, employing him from around 1640 for diplomatic, surveillance, and military engineering jobs. Richelieu named him sub-lieutenant of his galley, "Le Cardinal." Blondel was given the governorhip of the tiny naval stronghold of Palamas, where he recovered from wounds. He also served Richelieu's successor, Mazarin, in the Italian campaign, and the Duke of Richelieu, the Cardinal's nephew, also in southern Italy. He continued to undertake missions for Mazarin after 1656. In recognition of his accomplishments in 1657-9, Mazarin gave him 4000 livres.
It was probably Loménie de Brienne who was responsible for Blondel's chair at the Collège Royale, as well as some of his diplomatic assignments.
Colbert, secretary of state for commerce, marine affairs, colonies, and finances, gave Blondel the job of Royal engineer for marine affairs.
1668, Blondel was ennobled as a consequence of his father's ennoblement in 1654.
1671, when Colbert decided to found the Académie royale d'architecture, he made Blondel the first director. Members were given pensions of 500 livres. Blondel seems to have remained active in the Académie until his death.
Like Loménie de Brienne, Colbert had Blondel accompany his son on a trip, this one to Italy.

9. Technological Involvement:

Types: Civil Engineering, Military Engineering
He directed construction for the region and drew up plans for Rochefort and its fortifications, and for restoration of the Saintes bridge and the Roman arch.
He undertook numerous military engineering projects, many of them having to do with the fortification of naval facilities or coastal defence. He also wrote two books: La nouvelle manière de fortifier les places, and L'art de jeter les bombes.

10. Scientific Societies:

Membership: Académie Royal des Science He was admitted to the Royal Academy of Sciences as a geometer in 1669. From 1669-82, he received an annual pension of 1500 livres.
He was appointed professor at, and director of, the Royal Academy of Architecture in 1671.

Sources
1.Louis-Placide Mauclaire and C. Vigoureux, Nicolas-Francois de Blondel, ingenieur et
    architecte du roi (1618-1686), (Laon, 1938). This is an excellent source. Henry
    Lemonnier,Proces-verbaux de l'Academie Royale d'architecture 1671-1793,I-II,
    Paris, 1911-1912, passim.

Compiled by:
    Richard S. Westfall
    Department of History and Philosophy of Science
    Indiana University

Mederico Blondel

Extraction from the book:
"5000 Years of Architecture in Malta"
by Leonard Mahoney
(Malta, 1996)

Blondel, Mederico (1628-1698). French Architect and engineer who worked for the order of the "Knights of Malta." # 1 Alison Hoppen says that Blondel came to Malta in 1659 but Denis de Lucca identifies him with 'the French engineer who stayed in the island', referred to in A.O.M. 258 f.41v., dated 31 September 1645, having probably come in the entourage of some French engineers who visited the island in that year. Blondel succeeded Buonamici in 1657, but it was only on 7 June 1659, i.e. after Buonamici's departure, that blondel's salary as resident engineer was approved. Mederico Blondel was the son of Louis Blondel de Croisettes, ordinary architect in things military to the French king, and brother to the famous Francois Blondel, who rose to the rank of Field Marshal in the French army and ran his own school of architecture until be became Professor and first President of the Academie de l'Architecture. Mederico was made Knight of Grace of the French Langue and remained in the Order's service until his death in 1698, but was absent from the island on sick leave for prolonged periods in the late 1660s and 1670s. He designed St Mary of Jesus, Valletta (1689). He also designed or was involved in: St. Francis, Valletta (completed 1681); St. Rocco, Valletta (1681); the Carmelite Church, Mdina (1660-72). He was involved in the remodelling of the Auberge d'Italie and St. Catherine of Italy, Valletta.

"The Cottonera Lines, named after Grand Master Nicholas Cotoner, who commissioned their construction, were effectively the most ambitious work of fortification ever undertaken by the knights of St John in Malta. Built as a result of the fall of Candia to the Turks in 1670 and the rekindled the fear of a Turkish invasion, these consisted of a massive trace of eight large bastions, encircling the Sta. Margherita and San Salvatore hills and joining the extremities of the old fronts of Vittoriosa and Senglea. Work on the Cottonera Lines began in August 1670 continued incessantly for a decade until the death of the grand master in 1680, by which time the main body of the enceinte had already been laid down under the supervision of Mederico Blondel, the Order’s resident engineer. The funds allocated for the Cottonera fortifications had run out and the new grand master ordered the cessation of the project. As a result the ravelins and cavaliers, together with the ditch and the covertway that were originally proposed by Valperga, were never constructed. The project remained virtually abandoned until well into the eighteenth century when some effort was made to bring the works to completion."

The Cottonera Lines
Mederico Blondel supervised the construction of
this massive fortification.

Source: http://www.fortressexplorer.org/bhfmalta.html February 25, 2003

Sources:
Prof. Denis De Lucca
Director
International Institute for Baroque Studies

Monica Floridia
Executive Officer
Faculty of Architecture & Civil Engineering
University of Malta - MALTA - MSD 06

"5000 Years of Architecture in Malta"
by Leonard Mahoney
(Malta, 1996)

See Also:

Jacques François Blondel

HOTEL DE VILLE IN SAINT CROIX

The following is a poor computer translation of the french text this material was written in; however, it is the best we can do for now! To view to original French web site this material was extracted from please click on the image of the hotel.

The town hall was built in 1769 to 1771 by the architect Blondel, presumably Jacques François Blondel. A complementary part, with the site of the Saint-Gorgon church, occupied today by the Office of Tourism, was completed only in 1788. The building has a long frontage of 92 meters is matched by the arcades and two fore-parts, surmounted decorated pediments, before the Revolution these were the weapons of the king and the City. On the frontage, under the inscription "Town hall", one may distinguish the inscription, engraved in stone, the name of the place at the time of the revolution. In English it translates to: "Place of the Law". It has a majestic, decorated staircase of a superb wrought iron slope and two statues, Justice and Prudence, that blend in with the large complex. In the building are suspended medallions representing the famous Messins, of the end of the Average Age in the middle of the XIXe century such as: Pilâtre de Rozier, first aeronaut in balloon, Sebastien the Clerk (engraver of Louis XIV) or... Antoine Louis (surgeon, inventor of the guillotine).