Claude Chastillon

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Title page of Topographie françoise by Claude Chastillon

Claude Chastillon or Chatillon

topographical draughtsman, who served under Henry IV of France. His most notable work, Topographie françoise, published posthumously in 1641, is a collection of 500 views of French towns and buildings and constitutes a unique, if partial, historical account of French topography and architecture at the beginning of the 17th century.[2]

Life and career

Chastillon was born in Châlons-en-Champagne.

In the 1580s Chastillon became a part of the military retinue of

fortifications, the mechanics of besiegement, and hydraulics.[2][3]

In the course of his professional duties, Chastillon toured France and neighboring countries and made drawings of many of the places he visited, including views of towns and buildings, ancient and contemporary. Many of these he began to have engraved.

Mathieu Merian, Léonard Gaultier, Joachim Duviert, and Jacques Poinssart.[4] In 1616 Chastillon died in Paris without having published the bulk of his collection of drawings.[2]

Topographie françoise

Fifteen years after Chastillon's death, the publisher Jean Boisseau purchased the existing plates and drawings.

châteaux of officials and friends of the king, many now destroyed, and is therefore an invaluable source for the study of French noble residences of the period.[2]

Cordouan lighthouse

Errors were introduced in the second edition of 1648, when work of other artists was added.

Cordouan lighthouse engraved by Jacques Poinssart.[5] Chastillon had produced an expert evaluation for the completion of the lighthouse for Henry IV's minister, the Duke of Sully in 1606.[2]

Louis Boissevin (c. 1610–1685), a book publisher and print merchant, purchased Topographie françoise from Boisseau and published a third edition in 1655.[6] The plates were reordered alphabetically by name, but some of the views lacking titles were misidentified.[2]

The errors of the 1648 and 1655 editions and the tendency of the drawings to exaggerate the sizes of buildings, as well as the coarse quality of many of the engravings, have led some historians to discount the accuracy and utility of Topographie françoise.[2] Unfortunately Chastillon's original drawings have been lost. Nevertheless, Françoise Boudon has argued that an examination of the work reveals that "Chastillon's topographical approach (his search for the best viewpoint, the measurement of distances, the pinpointing of characteristic features of the terrain and distinctive features of building etc)" ... has made it "apparent that these engravings, far from being whimsical and useless images, constitute the pages of a precise 'report' on France in the early 17th century."[2]

The Topographie is a rare book with only about 15 extant copies, including all editions.[4]

Gallery

Notes

  1. ^ Benezit.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Boudon 1996.
  3. ^ a b Ballon 1991, p. 244.
  4. ^ a b c Lemerle 2014a.
  5. ^ Lemerle 2014b.
  6. ^ Lemerle 2014.

Bibliography

External links

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