THE STYLE OF HENRY II. l8l 



in the most unexpected connections. He generally arranges his com- 

 positions in formal schemes, but fills them out with naturalistic repre- 

 sentations of plant and animal forms with a special predilection for the 

 monstrous and grotesque. 



ARCHITECTURAL WRITERS : DE L'ORME. The reigns of Henry II. 's 

 sons were prolific in architectural literature. Philibert de 1'Orme owes 

 his great reputation perhaps as much to the writings, which the com- 

 parative leisure of his later life gave him the opportunity of composing, 

 as to his architecture. In addition to the apologia already referred to, 

 he wrote " Nouvelles Inventions pour bien bastir, et a petits Fraiz " 

 (Paris, 1561), treating of his constructive and expense-saving inventions, 

 especially his system of wood-vaulting. This was incorporated in his 

 "Premier Tome de 1'Architecture " (Paris, 1567), the first instalment 

 of an encyclopaedia of architecture, which he was not able to complete 

 before his death. Though both the style and the plates are obscure, 

 de 1'Orme's writings, forming as they do a compendium of the pro- 

 fessional knowledge of his times, have a permanent value. They may 

 still be consulted with profit on practical points where he drew on 

 his own wide experience, or on the Orders, which he treats not 

 as a servile imitator of Vitruvius, but as an independent investigator 

 who had made innumerable measured drawings, while the light he 

 throws on the practice of architecture in his day and on his own 

 life is scarcely more interesting than his speculative and symbolistic 

 ideas. 



BULLANT. Jean Bullant, who went out of office with de 1'Orme, 

 also took to writing, since, as he says, the works at Ecouen required 

 little attention and " to the end that I be not consumed with idleness 

 inasmuch as the greater part of the time I remain without other 

 occupation." Unlike his contemporary he makes but the scantiest 

 personal references, and expresses himself with pathetic diffidence and 

 modesty. He published a treatise on Geometry and the art of setting 

 out sundials (Paris, 1561-2), and another on the Orders (Paris, 1564-8), 

 both illustrated by his own woodcuts. 



Du CERCEAU. Du Cerceau's last years were as productive in 

 publications as his earlier. His three " Livres d'Architecture " (1559, 

 1561, and 1572) are devoted to designs for chateaux and their sur- 

 roundings, features and minor structures. Designs for arabesques, 

 caryatids, &c., are given in his " Grandes Grotesques" (1566) and 

 other series. In other works again du Cerceau dealt with the Orders, 

 Roman monuments, and perspective, and in 1576 there appeared the 

 first volume of his great work, " Les Plus Excellents Bastiments de 

 France," consisting of illustrations and descriptions of royal and 

 other great houses, followed by a second series three years later. 



