Jacques Besson

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Jacques Besson
Born 1540?
Grenoble, France
Died 24 January 1645
England
Nationality French
Fields Engineering, Mathematics, Instrumentation
Religious stance Protestant

Jacques Besson was a French scientist. He was probably born in Grenoble, France, around 1540. Little has survived about his early days.

The first historical record of Besson is from 1557 when he provided the town of Lausanne, Switzerland, with a model of a pump for public fountains. He published a book, De absoluta ratione extrahendi olea et aquas e medicamentis simplicibus on the complete doctrine of extracting oils and waters from simple drugs in Zürich in 1559. That same year he moved to Geneva and petitioned to live there as a permanent resident. He worked at Geneva as a mathematics teacher. There are evidence that Besson took up the ministry in 1562 and became pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church in Villeneuve-de-Berg in France. However, his ministry did not fare well. In 1564- 1565, he left the town to take up his old occupation of mathematics teacher in Lyon, and eventually settled in Orléans in 1567. Here Besson produced his second work, Le Cosmolabe, printed in Paris in 1567. This work, besides describing an elaborate instrument that could be used for navigation, surveying, cartography, and astronomy, contained a a list of inventions he hoped he would be able to describe in a future book. This book would become his Theater of Instruments and Machines.

Although illustrations of machines appeared in print before Besson's work: Valturio's De re militari created in 1472, Biringuccio's Pirotechnia created in 1540 & Agricola's De re metallica created in 1556, they were merely limited descriptions of new inventions. Besson was the first person in France to provide a printed work showcasing his mechanical inventions. The opportunity to showcase his work came when King Charles IX of France came to Orléans in 1569. Besson presented himself to the King and returned with him to Paris as master of the King's Engines. Charles gave Besson exclusive rights to his designs in that same year and Besson began to work on publishing of his works, Theater of Instruments and Machines. The illustrations of the instruments and machines were designed and/or engraved by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau from Besson's specifications. The Theater of Instruments and Machines appears to have been produced in a hurry as the sixty illustrated machines are described as brief caption in Latin on each engraving. Even the title page does not had the name of the printer or the date of publication (most probably in 1571 or 1572). The rush in publishing the book was due to the crackdown on the Protestants in France known as St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre. Although Beson had royal patronage by King Charles IX, Besson emigrated to England, where he died in 1573.

[edit] References

  • http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/HST/Besson/besson.htm
  • http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9078938/Jacques-Besson
  • http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/HST/Besson/besson-introduction.htm
  • http://libcoll.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/elib/rara/YD9NH338 (another digitized version)
  • Errard, Jean. Le premier livre des instruments mathématiques méchaniques... Nancy, 1584.
  • Ramelli, Agostino. Le diverse et artificiose machine... Paris, 1588 (copy in SIL, along with seven of the original drawings).
  • Bachot, Ambroise. Le govvernail... Lequel conduira le curieux de geometrie en perspectiue dedans l'architecture de fortifications, machine de guerre & plusieurs autres particularitez y contenues. Melun, 1598.
  • Boillot, Joseph. Modelles, artifices de feu et divers instrumens de guerre avec les moyens de s'en prévaloir... Chaumont-en-Bassigny, 1598.
  • Zonca, Vittorio. Novo teatro di machine et edificii per uarie et sicure operationi... Padua, 1607 (copy in SIL).
  • Zeising, Heinrich. Theatri machinarvm... Leipzig, 1607-? (copy in SIL, plates only; SIL also has 1708 edition).
  • Branca, Giovanni. Le machine... Rome, 1629 (copy in SIL).
  • Böckler, Georg Andreas. Theatrum machinarum novum... Nuremberg, 1661 (SIL has 1673 and 1686 editions).
  • Grollier de Servière, Gaspard. Recueil d'ouvrages curieux de mathematique et de mecanique... Lyon, 1719 (copy in SIL along with 1751 edition).

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