Jean Errard de Bar-le-Duc

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Jean Errard

Jean Errard de Bar-le-Duc (* 1554 in Bar-le-Duc ; † July 19 or 20, 1610 in Sedan ), also known as Jean Errard for short , was a French mathematician, engineer and fortress builder. His work earned him the nickname "father of French fortification" (French: "père de la fortification française") and influenced later fortress builders such as the Chevalier Deville named Antoine de Ville and Blaise François Pagan , comte de Merveilles, who in turn was the model of Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban was.

family

Errard's ancestry has not yet been clarified. Possibly his father was Philippe Errard, a Lorraine native who was involved in building Lorraine fortifications around 1546. In the early 1580s, he married Barbe de Reims (also de Raims and de Reince), with whom he had two sons:

  • Maximin (also Maximilien) († 1607)
  • Abdias, baptized October 28, 1598, ⚭ May 1, 1623 Ide d'Ourches, daughter of Louis' d'Ourches, seigneur de Broussey

Life

Nothing is known about Jean Errard de Bar-le-Duc's childhood and early adolescence. In 1572 he converted to Protestantism and in 1573 was enrolled at the University of Heidelberg . Possibly he was staying in the Electoral Palatinate for religious reasons , because Protestantism was forbidden in both the Duchy of Bar and Lorraine at that time.

After completing his education in mathematics and fortification building in Italy, he entered the service of the Catholic Duke of Bar and Lorraine, Charles III in 1580 . When he joined the Catholic League in 1584 , Errard had to leave Lorraine because of his religious affiliation and went to Sedan , where in 1585 the Duke of Bouillon, Henri-Robert de La Marck , who was also Prince of Sedan, took him into his service. He sent him to Jametz in 1587 , where he used his knowledge to provide valuable defense services during the siege of the city by the Catholic League until 1589. Although Jametz finally had to surrender to the besiegers on July 24, 1589, Errard had made such a good name for himself in France that the French King Henry IV summoned him to the court.

Jean Errard accompanied the monarch during the following years on his campaigns against the troops of Spain and the League through the kingdom and constructed and supervised the construction of several fortresses in the north and east of France, including the fortress of Sedan and the citadel of Laon (from 1595) , the fortifications of Montreuil (from 1597) and the citadel of Amiens (from 1598). In 1599, the citadels of Calais and Sisteron were expanded under his leadership .

Heinrich had appointed him premier engineer du roi as early as 1591 and appointed him to his advisory team. He also held the post of Grand Master of the Artillery . In May 1599, the king also elevated him to the nobility. Jean Errard de Bar-le-Duc died on July 19 or 20, 1610 in Sedan and went down in French history as the first French to publish publications on fortification. Four years after his death work began on the citadel of Verdun , constructed according to Errard's theoretical treatises.

An early French edition of the first nine books of the Elements of Euclid (1604, 1605), the second French translation after that of Pierre Forcadel (1564, 1566) comes from him .

Works

Illustration from Instruments mathematiques mechaniques , 1584
  • Le compas géometrique (1579).
  • Le Premier livre des instruments mathématiques et méchaniques (Nancy, 1584). In this work he works on some inventions ascribed to Archimedes .
  • La géométrie et practique générale d'icelle (Paris, 1594). Jean Errard uses approximate calculations in this work, a novelty of that time.
  • Réfutation de quelques propositions du livre de M. de l'Escale de la quadrature du cercle par luy intitulé: Cyclometrica elementa duo (Paris, 1594).
  • La fortification réduicte en art et demonstrée (Paris, 1600). Reissued in 1620 under the title La fortification demonstrée et réduicte en art with notes by Errard's nephew Alexis.
  • That is fortificatio: Artificial and well-founded demonstration of how and what form good fortresses should be arranged, against the enemy, if they attack with army for all their advantage, to keep and to insure - no matter where and occasions as may arise to fortify (Frankfurt am Main, 1604). German edition of La fortification réduicte en art et démonstrée , edited by Katharina de Bry, Johann Israel de Bry and Johann Theodor de Bry .
  • Les neuf premiers livres des élémens d'Euclide, traduits et commentez par J. Errard (Paris, 1604 and 1605).

literature

  • Alfred Boinette, Marcel Lallemend: Jean Errard de Bar-le-Duc, "premier engineer du tres chrestien roy de France et de Navarre Henri IV". Sa vie, ses œuvres, sa fortification . Dumoulin, Paris 1884 ( digitized version ).
  • André Corvisier (ed.): Histoire militaire de la France . Volume 1, 1st edition. Presses universitaires de France, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-13-043872-5 .
  • Stéphane Gaber: Jean Errard de Bar-le-Duc. Ingénieur des fortifications du roi de France Henri IV . In: Le Pays Lorrain. Journal de la Société d'Histoire de la Lorraine et du Musée Lorrain . Vol. 87, 1990, pp. 105-118.
  • Eugène and Émile Haag: La France protestante . Volume 6, 2nd edition. Fischbacher, Paris 1888, Col. 39-44 ( digitized version ).
  • Dictionnaire des Architectes . Albin Michel, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-226-10952-8 , pp. 233-234.
  • Walter Endrei: Jean Errard (1554-1610) and his machine book . In: Technikgeschichte, Vol. 61 (1994), H. 1, pp. 1-10.

Web links

Commons : Jean Errard de Bar-le-Duc  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Chemins de mémoire: Jean Errard (1554-1610) , accessed January 6, 2017.
  2. E. and É. Hague: La France protestante. 1999, column 40.
  3. a b c George Goodall: Facetation ( Memento from June 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Website of the municipality of Bar-le-Duc ( Memento of March 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  5. Christopher Duffy: Siege Warfare. The Fortress in the Early Modern World, 1494-1660 . Routledge & Kegan, London 1979, ISBN 0-7100-8871-X , p. 116 ( digitized ).