Jean-Baptiste de Voglie

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Jean-Baptiste de Voglie (1723/24 - October 1777), born Jean Bentivoglio was an eminent Italian road and bridge engineer.

[edit] Life

The issue of the Ferrara sovereign branch of the Bentivoglio, Jean de Voglie entered the Corps of Bridges and Roads in 1742 and was made under-engineer to Perronet at Alençon, with whom he became intimately linked. He was made inspector-general in 1773, and highly thought of by his colleagues. The overall direction of the bridge at Tours was given to him on the death of Bayeux.

De Voglie planned and built the pont de Saumur, though for an unknown reason this bears the name of his collaborator Cessart.

Perronet's designated successor as first-engineer and director, de Voglie died prematurely of illness before he could succeed him. The architect Lecreulx (de Voglie's longtime boss at Saumur) said of him that "No-one possessed a great spirit of conciliation in business than he did, no-one was more intelligent in combining under all the faces nor more proper in seizing the convenient moment for his success. He brought together indefatigable activity with a singular facility for its use."

De Voglie provided an article on bridge construction for Diderot's and D’Alembert's Encyclopédie, and they also relied on his memory for the volumes on planks.