François Blondel
| François Blondel | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Nicolas-François Blondel c. 10 June 1618 Ribemont |
| Died | 21 January 1686 (aged 67) Paris |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Architect |
François Blondel (c. 10 June 1618 – 21 January 1686) was a soldier, engineer of fortifications, mathematician, diplomat, military and civil engineer and architect, called "the Great Blondel", to distinguish him in a dynasty of French architects. He is remembered for his Cours d'architecture which remained a central text for over a century. His precepts placed him in opposition with Claude Perrault in the larger culture war known under the heading Querelle des anciens et des modernes. If François Blondel was not the most highly reputed among the académiciens of his day, his were the writings that most generally circulated among the general public, the Cours de Mathématiques, the Art de jetter les Bombes, the Nouvelle manière de fortifier les places and, above all his Cours d'Architecture.
Born Nicolas-François Blondel at Ribemont in the Picardy region of France, he was baptized on 15 June 1618. His father was François-Guillaume Blondel, who studied law in Toulouse and bought the position of avocat du roi in Ribemont after receiving his degree in 1624. Nicolas-François' mother was Marie de Louen, whose family belonged to the local nobility. Although his father François-Guillaume was not born a nobleman, he was able to purchase (or inherit via his wife's relations) two close-by seigneuries, Gaillardon in 1620 and Les Croisettes before 1635, and was the mayor of Ribemont several times in the 1630s and 1640s. Nicolas-François was well educated in languages as a youth, and participated for a time in the Thirty Years' War.
In 1640 the Cardinal de Richelieu entrusted Blondel with diplomatic missions in Portugal, Spain and Italy, which gave him an opportunity to study at first hand the fortification systems of those nations. He returned from Italy with a greatly enhanced knowledge of mathematics, and it may have been during this trip that he met Galileo, with whom he later claimed to have studied personally. Blondel subsequently became one of Galileo's earliest French supporters.
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