Pierre Bullet

See also: Bullet (homonymy)

Pierre Bullet , French architect, born in 1639, died in 1716.

One does not know if he were the pupil of François Blondel like says it Bouillet (it is not very probable), this undoubtedly coming from a mesinterpretation of the note which devoted to him Quatremère de Quincy in its Dictionary… in which he is quoted like disciple: “too much constraint which reigns in the schools, the too large respect that one has for a Master, & which attaches you on its steps…”. But the foreword of the Architecture practices encourages to believe that he was only his employee, initially as fitter.

It built the Porte Saint Martin's day (1674) and the church Saint-Thomas d' Aquin. In 1676: with François Blondel, it publishes the Plan of Paris raised by the orders of the King and the care of the provosts of the merchants and aldermen and by the sieurs Bullet, architect of the king and the city, under the control of Mr Blondel, brigadier to the armies of the king, director of the royal academy of architecture and Master of mathematics of monseigneur Dauphin , more commonly called Plan of Bullet and Blondel .

On its only account, it publishes in 1675 a Traité use of the pantometer, geometrical instrument suitable to take all kinds of angles, mezurer the accessible and inaccessible distances, to survey and divide all kinds of figures, etc,… lately invented by the Sr Bullet which is supplemented in 1688 by a Traité levelling, containing the theory and the practice of this art, with the description of a level lately invented, by the sior Bullet .

As will an architect of the Town of Paris, it publish then Observations on the nature and the effects of the bad smell of the places or eases and cesspools and on the importance of which it is to avoid this bad smell for the conservation of health (without date, 1695?)

But its most important publication is its practical Architecture, which includes/understands general & particular construction bâtimens, the detail, measured & the estimate of each part… with an explanation & a conference of the thirty-six articles of the habit of Paris on the title of the constraints & reports/ratios which relate to the bâtimens, & of the ordinance of 1673 1691 which will know six republications, with increases of Descoutures as from 1755. The most current questions are tackled there, construction in wood sides, etc

Its work was already approached partially. The Saint Martin's day door will be criticized for its heaviness by Jacques-François Blondel and Quatremère:

“The only advantage that one finds to him on the monument of François Blondel, it is to approach more the ancient arcs, by the form & the proportion. The three arcs of which it is bored are the main object of this resemblance of character. But one croiroit by been vermiculated embossings & rustic decoration that the architect introduced there, that it had intention interfering the character a triumphal arch with that which is appropriate for a door of city. It is doubted that this mixture is happy & worthy to be imitated.”

For the buildings worthy of praises one finds a good summary in the Course of Architecture of Jacques-François Blondel: “Bullet, after these two large Masters, deserves also a distinguished row, by considering it on the side of the taste of Art: its Castle of Issy is, perhaps, an example of what can the taste of which we speak, supported precepts; at least has it sçu to return reason of the reasons which determined it to give the preference to that one on those, having felt that being only one country cottage of little extent, but intended for the residence of a large Princess, it devoit rather than to surprise & astonish. One can about it say as much of his Archiépiscopal Palate of Bourges…” ( Course of Architecture IV, p. xlvii.)

With what one will add the widening of the quay the Furrier who made the admiration of his contemporaries, a series of private mansions and the Saint-Michel fountain.

Random links: