Hieraume Peyre sketchbook and commonplace book, 1620-1640
Navigate the Collection
Summary
- Creator:
- Peyre, Hieraume
- Abstract:
- Hieraume Peyre (or Hierosme Peire) was a French architect-builder, originally from Saint-Chamond, who lived and worked in the area around Saint-Etienne, Isère, Grenoble, and Tullins. Sketchbook and commonplace book compiled over two decades (approximately 1620-1640) by the French architect-builder Hieraume Peyre. The manuscript is in ink and color [14.9 x 19.3 cm], (187) ff., with some leaves showing an earlier pagination that might indicate the loss of some leaves, but with no clear interruption of continuity in the text, copiously illustrated (265 of 375 pages carry some form of illustration, and 161 of these are full-page). Bound in early tinted vellum. The manuscript provides information on both the practical and theoretical concerns of early-modern engineers and architectural practitioners.
- Extent:
- 0.5 Linear Feet (1 item)
- Language:
- Materials in French
- Collection ID:
- RL.11587
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Sketchbook and commonplace book compiled over two decades (approximately 1620-1640) by the French architect-builder Hieraume Peyre. The manuscript is in ink and color [14.9 x 19.3 cm], (187) ff., with some leaves showing an earlier pagination that might indicate the loss of some leaves, but with no clear interruption of continuity in the text, copiously illustrated (265 of 375 pages carry some form of illustration, and 161 of these are full-page). Bound in early tinted vellum. The manuscript provides information on both the practical and theoretical concerns of early-modern engineers and architectural practitioners: Peyre made numerous drawings of carpentry designs for vaults and towers he worked on, brickwork and ashlar masonry patterns, ornamental motifs for stonework, designs for stone intarsia floors, balusters, coffered ceilings, among others. He also engaging closely with printed architectural treatises, for example, with a French translation of the Spaniard Diego de Sagredo's (c. 1480-1528) Medidas del Romano, from which Peyre copied several woodcuts illustrating the classical orders, classical proportions, masonry profiles, and more.
In addition to his illustrations of architectural matter, Peyre includes recipes for "cold' cement, hydraulic "ciment chaud" for work on fountains, varnish, "false marble," oil paints, gilding, plasters, and adhesives, and provides designs for lathes used in turning. Extensive sections on horology and surveying are practical, with Peyre's attention to vertically mounted mural sundials reflecting his specialty as a builder of the towers where such timekeeping devices were placed.
Peyre also provides riddles, poetry, prayers (one in Italian), illustrations of various inventions (for example, relating to wells, the manufacture of wheat, Jacob's staff, among others), botanical and entomological specimens, heraldic illustrations, and numerous drawings of sacred and secular figures (including Pope Paul V, and François de Paule, the founder of the Order of Minims), labyrinths, cityscapes, religious iconography, armor, grotesques, and both real and mythical beasts. He mentions events dated with the years 1620, 1623, 1624, 1630, 1634, 1636, and 1637 and occasionally provides personal details from his life, including a note on the birth of a son, Jehan, on 16 December 1630, and the infant's untimely death two months later.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Hieraume Peyre (or Hierosme Peire) was a French architect-builder, originally from Saint-Chamond, who lived and worked in the area around Saint-Etienne, Isère, Grenoble, and Tullins.
- Acquisition information:
- The Hieraume Peyre Sketchbook and Commonplace Book was received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a purchase in 2017.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Alice Poffinberger, January, 2018
Accessions described in this collection guide: 2017-0216
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Subjects
Click on terms below to find related finding aids on this site. For other related materials in the Duke University Libraries, search for these terms in the Catalog.
Contents
Using These Materials
- Using These Materials Links:
-
Using These Materials
- Restrictions:
-
Collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
-
The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
- Before you visit:
- Please consult our up-to-date information for visitors page, as our services and guidelines periodically change.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Hieraume Peyre Sketchbook and Commonplace Book, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.