The Archaeology of Section Author(S): Jacques Guillerme, Hélène Vérin , Stephen Sartarelli Reviewed Work(S): Source: Perspecta, Vol

Yale School of Architecture

The Archaeology of Section Author(s): Jacques Guillerme, Hélène Vérin , Stephen Sartarelli Reviewed work(s): Source: Perspecta, Vol. 25 (1989), pp. 226-257 Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of Perspecta. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1567147 . Accessed: 27/12/2011 17:07

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http://www.jstor.org The Archaeologyof Section

JacquesGuillerme and Helene Verin

1. The term "lack"or manque Originally, the Lacanian mythologists tell us, archaeological remains (traces)into the in Lacanian mythology refers to there was lack,whence arose representation, observance of architectural diagrams (traces) "a presence made of absence." which is the germinal form and precondition Jacques Lacan, Ecrits:A Selection, of all activity of knowledge and planning.' Of the countless but often unrecognizable translated by A. Sheridan vestiges of ancient Rome, three stand out (New York:Norton, 1977), p. 65. In the beginning, as concerns the architec- for the charismatic effect they have on the tural section, was the ruin, more specifically, minds of archaeologists; these are three 2. CodexAtlanticus (Milan: the Roman ruin: the ensemble of the ruins monuments which have particularlyfostered Biblioteca Ambrosiana), folio 850, of the Urbswhich displays to the magnetized the objectification of sections. On the one previously 310 recto, b. gaze of humanist nostalgia all the stages of hand, we have the amphitheater of Flavius, the vestiges' decline and all the breaches better known as the Coliseum, and the baths that time has wrought on the outer shells of of Caracalla;on the other, the rotunda of edifices extolled by scholars. Ruins are, in the Pantheon. All were abundantly contem- short, the traces of decay's ravages and lack plated, admired, observed and drawn. The on the resistant mass, and hence the contours first two greeted one's eyes with the gaping and aspect of structures which constitute the breaks in their structures and with the very bodies of monuments. It is to the hands semi-preserved arrangement of their vaulting of time that we owe the bringing to light systems. The Pantheon, on the other hand, of the frameworks that architectural techne had come down through the centuries nearly conceived, worked, erected and finally intact, with its interior disposition visible dissimulated in the temporarily completed and easily represented but its internal appearance of perfect construction. structure remaining hidden. Its constructional apparatusremained hypothetical and pro- The problem we would like to address here is voked a vast range of divergent conjectures. that of retracing the steps by which inventive The joining of the orthogonal structure of citizens, from the reasoning artisan to the the peristyle with the incurvation of the main curious philologist, were able to translate the body was especially titillating to the imagina- "natural"images of breaks in ancient ruins tions of archaeologists. Already in Leonardo's into stable schemata of sectional contours in work a hastily executed sketch poses this the documents made by the traveler as well question without insisting on one particular as the projects made by the artist. To put it solution; hesitation is a meaningful symptom another way, we would like to glimpse the of this "visionary"who nevertheless worked many stages where the acute and questioning rigorously and carefully at outlining the gaze of technicians paused to contemplate details of arches (as in the tiburioof the Milan in order to transform the observation of cathedral).2

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2 1. Attributedto Bramante,sheet of drawingsof ancientruins.

2. Anonymous,partial view of the RomanColiseum, late 15th century.

3. Sangalloil Gobbo,external structure of the amphitheaterof Verona.

4. Leonardoda Vinci,sketch of the tiburio at the Milan Cathedral.

227 The fact is that the rotunda is the emblem- means, whether naive or mannered, tend atic monument on which speculators in to express an encounter between Revelation 5 matters of architectonics have long and and History. insistently expended their energies. They go so far as to impose on its form the imaginary But here one must recall one of the most and vivid breaking up of the outside onto audacious strokes of genius of the Renais- the inside, and thereby contribute to the sance, that of representing the cosmos teaching and justification of the art of spaccato, through the double correlation of the con- or vertical section. One of the most note- cave and the convex by the use of globes. worthy of such examples is found in the Compared to this, the twofold figuration of Chlumczansky Codex, which presents side by the Pantheon seems little more than a timid side two drawings by the same anonymous application of the same principle. Imagining 5 hand, dated circa 1500.3 The first is a simple the antipodes was an act of conceptual and crude elevation; the second one looks like invention that made it possible to represent 3. CodexChlumizanskl (Prague: a primitive spaccato.The positioning and the earth as a distinct object of our sensible, Library of Czech National Museum), stroke of the spaccatoare rather awkwardcom- immediately intuitive rootedness.6 It was also folio 71; W Jufen, in the manuscript pared to current standards. Yet its merit, the condition for being able to configure, in Memoireset monumentsPiot, vol. 68 indeed its purpose, lies in presenting a draw- plastically identical and similarly manipulable (Paris: 1987), p. 161, points out ing of the mental operation which embraces, ball-shapes, the miniaturization of the two that "the two views... are copies, all at once, the interior and exterior of the spheres of the natural macrocosm, the globe probably the only ones, of a lost edifice as well as the thickness that separates of the earth and that of the concave celestial model that probably dates from the them. Here we have indeed a "tectonic" sphere. Thus one became accustomed to con- same period as Giuliano's drawings cut-out whose pattern seeks to show the sidering side by side, as it were, simultane- and comes from his entourage"; he structure or "inner workings." It is thus a ously, the inside and outside of things, within refers to folios 37 recto and 38 recto diagram (trace)more thought-out and more hand's reach; within the reach of that "instru- of the odexBarberini, Lat. 4424. elaborate than the traditional images of ment of instruments,"7 the sign and means of breaches which give a glimpse of scenes a rationality that analyzes and synthesizes, 4. Among the many examples, belonging to such unusual compartments breaks down and reassembles modifications of see folio F3 recto of the Grant of the universe as Hell or the Empyrean.4 scale. The cosmological artifice of the spheres Kalendrieret compostdes begiers The elaborated type exemplified in this of the world was de jure the expression of a published at Troves in 1529 by drawing from the Chlumczansky Codex also conceptual bravado that henceforth autho- Nicolas Le Rouge. It is, of course, stands apart from such imagery which rized the enterprising advancement of the but one example; the artifice of revives mystical fables and whose figurative artifices of architectural graphic figuration. representing the break in a wall can be found as early as in the deco- rations adorning Greek vases when they illustrate an episode taking place inside a dwelling or cave.

5. Often cited in this connection is the convention whereby the Nativity is represented in Renaissance art within a decor of ruins.

6. "... today, under the round machine / New lands and diverse peoples / have been found by dint of great effort," one reads in the "Foreword"of the Descriptionof Geographyattributed to Marco Polo and published in Paris in 1556.

7. Aristotle referred to the hand as the "instrument of instruments" in Parts of Animals, 687 a-sq. o

228 The Archaeologyof Section allegory of

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JacquesGuillerme and Helene Verin 229 8. See Wolfgang Lotz, Studiesin Let us return momentarily, however, to the Italian RenaissanceArchitecture figure in the Chlumczansky Codex. It is (Cambridge, Mass.: 1977), pp. 18- emblematic, we said, of the questioning gaze 21. The important point here is the cast on the structures of edifices whose reference to a view of Hagia Sofia, appearance is reconstructed artificially in two copied from a model by Ciriaco dimensions. This gaze is instructive for the l d'Ancona from the first quarter of questions it poses and for the answers it the fifteenth century. provides beyond a merely playful attitude to a truly pioneering one. This attitude is 9 et in a famous in the 9. See Hermolao Barbaro al., expressed drawing Royal y?. C. Plini Naturalis Historiaelibros Collection at Windsor of the so-called Castigationes,(Basel: 1534), p. 507: temple of Portumnus, which is apparently "... ex Vitruvii libro primo quan- an imitation of a drawing by Giuliano da quam scenographia fortasse rectius Sangallo.8 This drawing and others embel- apud eum scribitur, quoniam lish upon the theme of the ruin and mark pictura sit non solum areae, ut a decisive step in the importance of sections. ichnographia, nec frontis tantum, Indeed, the comparison and seriation of ut orthographia: nec tecti universi those drawings which present aspects of the hoc architectural whether corre- quod scenam, est, taberaculum section, they 10 vocare mos Graecum est." spond to documentary or creative intentions, bear witness to a surprising diversity of 10. One reads: "The adumbration manners and points of view. These varied and receding of the background, approaches quickly rise from a merely exper- with the shortening of the front and imental stage to take flight. Once archaeo- sides of the edifices effected by lines logical curiosity arms itself with the demands all correspond to a center and so is of proportion, the diagrammatic illustration commonly called perspective...." tends to become uniform and the protocol of the section begins to submit to academic 11. B. Baldo, De Verborum conventions. vitruvianorumsignificatione (Augusta: 1612), p. 153. The terminology would follow far behind and was not always rigorous, as we can see 12. Micraelius, Lexicon for example in French, where the terms Philosophicum(Iena: 1653), coupe,section, and profi have long been inter- V? "Sciographia." changeable. This vacillation can probably be ascribed to the original transgression of 13. Ozanam, Dictionnairede Daniele Barbaro, who in his 1556 Venetian math6matique(Paris: 1691). This is edition of Vitruvius, read sciographiafor more or less the definition of scenographiain the definition of the three "profile"given by the Encyclopaedia types of drawing appropriate for archi- Britannicain the 1771 Edinburgh tecture. This contradicted the authoritative edition. opinion of Hermolao Barbaro, a relation of Daniele, who in 1492 in his Castigationes 14. C. Rieger, Universae of Pliny's Natural Historyhad pointed out Architecturaecivilis Elementa . . . that scenographiacorresponded correctly to (Vinderborn: 1756). the acceptable idea of tecti universiscena.9 9, 10. Anonymous,drawing from the Nevertheless, the 1547 edition of Vitruvius RoyalLibrary at Windsor. 15. C. Wolff, ElementaMatheseos by Jean Martin did not fail to identify 0 universae,ed. nova, vol. 4 (Halle: scenographiawith perspective. In 1612, 11. S. Peruzzi, elevation/section of 1738), p. 487. however, Baldo's explanation of Vitruvius' thefacade of the S. Elogio Church, vocabulary was content to bring together a Rome. 16. The "Lettere a Papa Leone X" great range of diverse opinions and did is reprinted in the collection Tutti not choose, for sciographia,between the 12. A. San Gallo,study sheet of the gli Scritti di Raphael,edited by shaded image of an edifice put into perspec- Tempietto, sectionof the buildingand E. Camesasca (Milan: 1956), p. 63. tive and the drawing of a profile." Forty variousdetail studies.

230 TheArchaeology of Section years later the LexiconPhilosophicum of edifice, as it would appear if the primary The paretedi dentrois termed Micraelius defines the term sciographiaas an outer wall were removed." 14 This delin- much later, by Guarino Guarini, ordered representation of the facade and eation may be either a flat or perspective as ilte,za facies, which is a section sides of an edifice. As synonyms he posits view. The former case was termed on a flat background or section the terms modellum,profilum, protypum, Orthographiainterna by Christian Wolff elevation. proplasma.2 And it is probably not until the in his Elementaof 1738;'5 yet this method end of that century that one finds a clear was designated as early as 1519 by Raphael, 17. Palladio practiced the rabatt- identifi-cation between sciographieand profil, in his famous letter to the Pope, by the ment of the profiles of members in Ozanam, who defines the latter as the denomination paretedi dentro(inner wall).'6 onto the figures of their elevations; "geometric and orthographic elevation that There are a great number of images that the rabattment implied a logical lets one see the inside of a building."13 correspond to this prescription and Daniele disjunction in the reading of Henceforth, the etymology invoking shadow Barbaro gives an example of one in his diagrams and their conceptual refers to the object described (the insides of Practicadella prospettiva of 1568, where the recombination, just as in Barbaro, which are in shadow by definition) and no model of a central plan tempiettois repre- who had introduced superimposi- longer to the manner of representation and sented with an acute sense of the economic tions of transparent plans. For a image alone. Such an interpretation is codification of graphic information. The long time the drawing of the affirmed in the various usages of the French same representation connects, by rabattment dimensioned perspectival section word coupe.Essentially, in civil architecture of the half-plane, the orthographic ensemble of the "Tempietto alle Fonti di the term coupedesignates the area of a of section plus elevation. This is achieved Clitumno," no. 22 in the collection portion of an edifice, already built or yet by revolving the half-plane around its line of the Civic Museum of Vicenza to be built, by means of a vertical plane of intersection with the other plane until has been attributed to Palladio; now between the outlines of which the interior the two planes coincide. This type of scholars tend to think that it is elevation is represented. Such a figure is still delineation would become the fashion and one of those drawings of antiquities called intersectioby C. Rieger, who in 1756 we should not be surprised to see it adopted that humanist architects used to defined it thus: Delineatioaedificii, quale with diverse and ingenious variations by exchange in their keen hunger to apparitumesset, si murusprimarius externus Palladio in his celebrated Quattrolibri, as appropriate ancient models. removeretur,or "the delineation of an well as in many of his original designs. 1

11 12

JacquesGuille7nie and Helene Veri7n 231 CARDINALI FARNESIO S ISVE A.DIFICATI k Pws uTMOR &.*.i. PARSIzwTIOR 1-. J- v- s s

,0 14 15 14

18. Although we know that two However, around the same time one In these drawings the designer plays, in programs had been given for a witnesses the development of the equally more or less accelerated perspectives, with a GranidPrix in 1701. See the ingenious practice of juxtaposing flat or capricious variety of architectonic milieus. excellent study ofJ.-M. Perouse diminished semi-elevations with perspective This formal effervescence, however, so de Monclos on the Concoursde views of the corresponding interiors, or typical of the Renaissance, would gradually be l'Academieroyale d'architecture even with actual sections from which issues sobered under the weight of scholastic au XYlIIe siecle(Paris: Berger- the entire perspective disposed in the back- conventions in the so-called "classical"and Leuorault, 1984). ground. Such is the case with the famous "baroque"eras. The collections of the "Desseing du dedans de la chappelle dans le Academie d'architecture de Paris, founded in 19. See the two imposing logis" of Anet, engraved for the Premier 1671 but not regularly holding competitions 8 volumes of Disegmidi architettlra volumedes plus excellentsbastiments de France until 1720, as well as those of the renderings dell'A7chizviostorico dell'Accademia byJacques-Androuet du Cerceau of 1579. To of the competitions of the Accademia di di San Luca, edited bv P. Marconi, him we are indebted for his great cleverness S. Luca in Rome beginning in 1677, 9 show A. Cipriani, and E. Valeriani in the graphic representation of complex the canonical usage of section/elevation (Rome: De Luca, 1974). edifices, and it is no accident that to him drawings in the exercises given to students. have been attributed the astonishing archi- The programs most often prescribed a cross tectural fantasies of the Fitzwilliam Museum. section or longitudinal section, but

232 The Archaeologyof Section 17

13. G. A. Dosio,project for circular temple,section/elekvation.

14. J. Rossi,Insignium Romae Templorum prospectu..., 1684 .~ elevation/Isectionperspective with plan.

15, 16. J. -A. du Cerceau,from The Book of Architectural Inventions.- ~'

1 7. C. Schriver,"Triumphalis \? ; FlorentinorumPorticus. '"fro La tr6s admirable, tr6s magnifique et triomphante enre 1 550, sectionperspective/lelevation. 18 18. J. Cousin, "Paysage,"from Livre de Perspective, 1560.

JacquesGuillerme and H6lene V6rin 233 *-. a-wn.- 00J

rarely two sections. Almost always, however, in the important tests, these sections were sumptuously washed by the competitors, who rivaled one another with their brilliance in pleasurably bringing out images of imaginary structures, the constructibility of which was often problematic. Against this same lure of graphic virtuosity would rise up, with good reason, such doctrinarians of the so- called "neo-classical" period as Quatremere de Quincy and, to an even greater degree, J. N. L. Durand, professor of architecture at the Ecole Polytechnique, who militantly fought for a severe economy of graphic practices and a rationalization of the process of conception. This method favored the section for the deduction of the elevations of facades and their correlation with the plan. In so doing he was only providing the means for an enlightened functionalism which matched, combined and arranged the required functions of an edifice, outlined their volumetric dispositions and subordinated therefore all decorative intentions.

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JacquesGuillerme and Hlene Vrin 235 It is clear, furthermore, that many a complex structure is defined first and foremost in relation to its section. This is true for theaters whose exteriors give little indication of the machinery inside. It is even more true for buildings established on inclined sites, where even though advantages could be gained in such locations, one had to deal with the problem of the structure'sfoundations and avoid interference to the line of view. II Concern with the line of view was one of u6 jail ,IIItl PF' J4J [4i. the primordial parameters of fortification. In this regard, the project for the cenotaph of Laperouse Labrouste is as 23 by exemplary, it shows, all at once, how a section design can be a means of controlling compositions and 4? an occasion for aestheticizing the rendering of the project. This use of the section merits closer examination. In this case precisely, the section brings to light properties of the composition that would otherwise remain unnoticed upon first consideration of the constructed monument. One imagines that here the eyes would be taken up with the ingenious scenography of the sensible qualities of the elevation's surfaces. The epi- dermal contrast between formless roughness and formal rigor expresses the opposition between two temperaments of the universe, that of natural chaos and that of cultural memory. At the heart of the boulders - the raw material in front of the cenotaph - the alignment of the inscriptions on the 24 polished cylindrical cut-out which winds per- fectly around the model of the terraqueous globe centered on the pedestal, completes the allegory by suggesting that history prepares the time of the finite world even as it separates man from nature. Erected facing the sea, the elevation, with its display of inscriptions, dissembles all signs of the depth

236 TheArchaeology of Secion :W.:.. Vw ... 22. C. Barabino,Clementino Competition,1789, Accademiadi ?*" S. Luca, Rome,longitudinal section of a theaterproject.

23. C. de Wailly,perspective sectionof projectfor a performance hall, 1771.

24. J. J. Lequeu,from Differents projetspour terminer les deux escaliersde 1'eglisede la Madeleine de Rouen, 1779, section/elevations.

H. Labrouste,project for the Laperouemausoleum, 1829. 25. Frontalsection 26. Sagittal section

JacquesGuillerme and Helene Verin 237 of its crypt and conceals the disposition of this makes sentient the doctrine that its secret organization. Only the sagittal architecture, as an art conscious of its means, section can annul the masking screen that consists in giving meaning to artifices by when analyzed proves to be nothing less than relativizing their dimensions. a palliative. Labrouste has here brought together the signifying details of an apparatus The case described above further instructs whose primary function is to preserve the us that the section is, by its very essence, relics of a scientific expedition and to honor associated in architecture with verticality; the political order that made it possible. although one can conceive of choosing a sec- The section, indeed the two sections, sagittal tional plane variously inclined on the hori- and frontal, enable one to see a complex zon, as one desires. Yet from an essentially cryptal volume whose visible apertures, later- tectonic point of view, the vertical is impera- ally arranged, afford a bird's-eye view onto tive in that it defines and divides the forces the open reliquary and the simulacrum of weight, weight being an invariant parame- of Laperouse which seems, in this instance, ter of all constructive practice, par excel- deliberately reduced in size. Shaped by an lence. If sections in architecture have diverse experienced master of heroic statuary,the functions for the choices of building ele- figure of the navigator, standing at the back ments' disposition, they are also the necessary of the crypt, gives orders by virtue of the referent of all anticipation of construction; volumen,or rolled documents, he holds in his they determine in the most immediately right hand. This hand, the ring of the anchor visible way the relationship between forms and the center of the globe are all rigorously and forces. It was no coincidence that, aligned, while the hero's creative gaze, if for example, the venomous conflicts between it were not interrupted by the bronze door, the engineers of the Ponts et Chaussees would extend without end into the ocean (the Department of Civil Engineering) and lapping at the foot of the structure. In other the architects, as well as the contractors, at words, the architectural composition, so con- the time of the 1796-1800 debates on the trolled as it is, is evidently subordinated to reinforcement of the pillars of the Pantheon an intangible axis which links, on both sides of Soufflot in Paris, were expressed in terms of a closed door, two miniaturized figures: of shoring and buttressing and essentially those of the sailor and the sea represented in given concrete expression by diagrams of the globe. These figures rest meanwhile on vertical sections. In this very singular case two "real"objects: the stock of the anchor study, the ideas for restructuring the edifice saved from the waters and the waters them- bear resemblance to mathematical treat- selves. It is easy to see that the forms of the ments of problems of the resistance of mate- project are not limited to uniting indiscrimi- rials. They prefigure the modern analysis of nately the necessary parts of a commemo- structures for they have as their goal the rative program, but consciously shape games conformation of supplementary members to of scale distortion from which emanates the be bonded with a masonry in danger of semantic cluster of the composition. The collapsing onto itself. Moreover, in a case as mark of this relationship of scale is even complicated as the Paris Pantheon, sections more evident in the relationship uniting the are inevitable documents of the analysis of rolled-up writings of the King's orders, the masonry blocks, and they affect the study placed in the figure's hand, with the historical of structures as well as the making of trans- text unrolled in the light of day, over the actions. More generally speaking, from hollowed-out cylinder of polished granite; this perspective we must consider the section

238 TheArchaeology of Section :

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as a sort of contractual document which 27. J. G. Soufflot,Ste. Genevieve, the architect addresses to the commissioner studiesfor the cupolastructure. and to the contractor, if not implicitly to himself as well. We would do well to recognize at this point in our historical survey that the architectural section steadily gained in theoretical and practical importance as the complexity of the projects increased and the terms of the social division of labor were established. These two components of the practice of civil architecture are well illustrated in the history of the development of naval architecture during the very same period that we have just examined, from the Italian Renaissance to the end of the French Revolution.

JacquesGuillerme and Hilene Vrin 239 To give the ship'shull a regularsurface architecture.One might even say that the whichwill assumelines that curvedifferently rift betweenarchitecture and construction in all directions,and to achievethis with the was expressedin the mannerin which help of wood that is not curvedexcept in a one used the terms"plans" and "sections." single plane:such is the natureof the workof The royalordinance of 1683 obligated marinecarpentry. From the very fact that carpentersto representon paperthe vessels the pieceshave at least one of their manysur- for which they are aboutto presentan facesthat is rectilinear,forming a right angle estimate;it required"a plan in vertical 20. Hobier, Counsellor to the with the adjacent surfaces, it follows that sectionwith a horizontalsection," that is, a King and Treasurer General of the the ship's body is entirely composed of "right sectionand a plan. Severalyears later, Father Eastern Navy, De la construction angles and straight lines."20It also follows PaulHoste, professorof hydrographyat d'unegallaire et de son equipage that elaborating the sections is a traditional the L'ecoled'hydrographie at Toulon,22 (Paris: 1622), p. 4. procedure of construction. One might addeda thirdsection to the list whichwould even say that the conception of the forms of be takenalong the waterline, and specified 21. This incline corresponds to the ship takes its bearing from these sections; the reasonfor this requirement:"As the what the carpenters called "pitching the forms are engendered in succession, plans [or drawings]of vesselsmust provide by stern," that is, the ship's starting from the two first and principal an exactrepresentation of all the vessel's tendency to sink towards the back. vertical sections, and traverse the ship's body parts,three differentprojections will be at its points of maximum length and madethereof."23 The wordwas spread:the 22. Father Paul Hoste was a Jesuit maximum width. sectionis but a projectionaccording to a and originally from Bresse - two plan;at the court,it is called"plan in sec- reasons for Colbert to doubt the These two sections are the first ones tion,"or as we knowit, a sectionaldrawing. validity of his teaching. He was chronologically and the principal ones in as thus sent to sea, and accompanied much as all the others are deduced from In 1746, PierreBouguer, in his Traitedu D' Estree and Tourville on expe- them with the aid of arithmetic ratios that naviredescribes various methods for "pro- ditions. His Hydrographie,reprinted guide the ruler and compass. A section is the jectingthe whole vessel onto a planeper- numerous times, shows a concern, shape that must be assumed by the combina- pendicularto its length,"that is, in section/ rare among educated men at the tion of parts that make up the "spine"and the elevation.24This design practice, which time, for practical usefulness. "ribs"of the ship, its "skeleton":that is to appearedin the 1670s,became widespread say, the ensemble of keel, stem and stern, at the startof the eighteenthcentury. It 23. Father Paul Hoste, Theorie in the longitudinal section, and floor timbers, consistsof representingin a single figure de la constructiondes vaisseaux stanchions and futtocks in the transverse the exteriorcurves of all the chief frames,25 (Lyon: 1697). section. The latter section, and the others whichstart to narrowat the midshipbeam, derived from it, are nothing but the represen- and arrangingthe framesof the sternand 24. Pierre Bouguer, Traitedu tations of the chief frames of the vessel, stem on eitherside of a median,or the line navire (Paris: 1746). Pierre designed full-size in the template room and of verticalsymmetry. "This sort of projection Bouguer, mathematician, physicist, cut up into thin or cardboardplanks. These sufficesto let one knowthe formof the ship astronomer and geographer, taught frames are then arranged at precise intervals and to enablethe buildersto startcon- hydrography in the western ports. across the keel; the wood pieces that construction," and "if one wishes to project stitute them have been patterned after these the ship onto any other plane,it will be easy 25. These are the frames arranged models. At the same time, the master to deducethis new projectionfrom the first according to the models and carpenter makes projections on the ground one."26However, the same Bouguer points templates; the other frames, filling with the help of a plumb line and rulers grad- out that "theword 'section'in shipbuildingis frames, have been traced from uated according to certain heights taken from appliedparticularly to those sectionsthat the beginning with the aid of the frames, which allow him to regularize aremade perpendicular to the ship'slength ribbands (horizontally placed the outlines of the horizontal planes and par- andthe firstone is the largestof all, the planks) which served as references ticularly the "water line" that descends along one that indicatesthe mastermodel or the for establishing dimensions. the ship's hull at a pre-established angle.2' midship frame."27These observations Thus the builder's "plan"is only a means by Hoste and Bouguerare indicative in more 26. Bouguer, Traitedu navire, p. 56. for controlling the regularity of the vessel's than one way of the complexconnections profiles. It is rendered precise during the existing between the knowledge and practice 27. Bouguer, Traitedu navire, p. 27. course of construction. of shipbuilders and that of the "geometers and physicists" who strove to rationalize It was not at all the same for those who, start- building practices according to their own ing around the 1640s, had a hand in naval models and principles.

240 TheArchaeology of Section 28. E E. Chapmann,Architectura navalis mercatoria, 1775.

JacquesGuillerme and Helene Virin 241 28. Francois Coulomb, "Livre For the builder, the sectionis a material work one eleventh and one fifteenth (which de construction des vaisseaux con- instrument: the template,a wooden mold or correspond to the rakes - the angle - of the tenans le nom des pices, leurs millboard pattern, full-size; the plan is only a stern-post and stem-post) furnishes the liaisons et les proportions generales means of practical control. Conversely, for keel's length. Once the keel is fashioned and de la masture, comm'aussy pour les the architect, the section is only a "plan in placed on the land-line,29 the stern-post fluttes et chaloupes par Coulomb section," a projection onto a plane that might and stem-post can be raised with the help of fils, Maistre-constructeur des easily be that of paper: the projection of apparatusesthat geometrize the space inside vaisseaux du Roy dans l'Escolle de one section, then quickly of several sections, which the vessel is being erected. The same construction de Toulon," Biblio- and soon of all the transverse sections. would be true for the transverse sections. theque Nationale, Manuscrits, As Hoste says: it is a question of providing a nouvelles acquisitions francaises, form with all the parts of a whole, the ship. This requirement of interpreting the sizes ms 4070. The architect'splan in section is an analytic of parts on the basis of dimensions repre- process that starts from the whole to get to sented on the plans in section forces one to 29. The land-line is the line the parts. For the master carpenter, pro- go back to working with the configuration of traced on the ground at the outset ducing the section (the template) and then the whole to get the forms and dimensions of construction upon which part the plan (the checking method) is a synthetic of the parts, so that one can once again pro- of the keel is placed when forming process. His point of departure is the timbers ceed according to the traditional method 30 the shape of the ship. he has at his disposal with which he must which moves from the parts to the whole. compose. If he cannot shape the proper It is to this arithmetic gymnastics that the 30. In the mid-seventeenth pieces of wood, can he prepare to build with builders must submit if they wish to control, century and in most cases into the only the aid of drawings of the curves that according to their custom, the forms they start of the eighteenth century, limit the frames? It is certain, however, produce with the help of the tables and the length of the vessel was that the master carpenters only became instruments they use. There are, therefore, defined by the length of the "keel "builders"- a title granted in 1689 - for two kinds of transverse sections: the carpen- touching the earth";the keel being having adopted the point of view that defines ter's frame drawing and the architect'ssec- "the basis and foundation from naval architecture: taking the intended pur- tional drawing. Although they represent, which all the other parts take pose of the work as the point of departure based on the same divisions, the same bodies their dimensions." See Dassie, rather than using the parts as a point of of the same vessels, they differ from each L'architecturenavale (Paris: 1677), departure. Francois Coulomb, master builder other in that they belong to two different p. 15, and Aubin, Dictionnairede la of the vessels of the King at the shipbuilding modes of intelligibility of the tangible, marine (Amsterdam: 1702). school in Toulon, begins his Livre de con- whether we are talking about the material structiondes vaisseaux by declaring that "it is and form or the time and space with which necessary to show the reasons which are the one is working. basis for giving proportions to the keel of a vessel touching the earth";that is, "one One may interpret the history of shipbuild- must proceed according to the quantity of ing in this era as a constantly renewed cannons the vessel is to carry,"which makes attempt to make the two kinds of sections it possible to calculate the total length, from coincide. In this respect the construction stem to stern.28This length, reduced by of warships made of wood and propelled by

242 TheArchaeology of Section functions of a machineof this sort. Such a machine was to be supple and strong, solid and light, swift and stable. The vessel is henceforth conceived as a physical object, subject to calculable forces. Its forms and structures must result from the application of physics to the arrangement of its parts. The "builders,"formerly "master carpenters sails is particularlyinteresting. Such of the navy,"have become "engineer construction began to spread in the mid- builders." The royal ordinances ratifying seventeenth century and in the late these denominations in 1623, 1689 and 1765 eighteenth century reached a level of per- also institute, correlatively, certain relation- fection as the product of plans calculated ships between conception, representation by engineers. Although limited in terms and construction. The result is that the of duration, the construction of warships approaches adopted for the representation gave rise to innovations and was subjected of sections show how, during this period, the to normative constraints. An object of modes of applicationwere opposed, com- concern to governments, it inspired a broad bined and transformed in shipbuilding: the literature: memoirs, inquiries and statutes application of a tangible body onto another, that make it possible to follow the history. of a tool to a material form, of a theory One can distinguish three phases: the first to matter. These modes of application cor- was around the 1640s, and the work by respond respectively to the practice, the art Robert Dudley, Dell'arcanodel mare, gives and the science of construction, which, one a good outline of it. This work repre- far from being mutually exclusive, never sents a great effort to control the design of cease to assist and support one another, and frame models according to the tradition not without certain confusions. of the master carpenters. The second stage corresponds to generalized concern Most assuredly the work by Dudley marks 31. Roberto Dudleo, Dell'arcano among governments to regulate the vessels an important moment in the transition from del mare (Florence: 1646). Dudley according to rank and to geometrize their the first of these sorts of application to the was known as Dudleo when he forms. This period is characterized by cross- second. His ambition was not only to enable wrote his book. sectional drawings which present all the carpenters to fabricarein simmetriai vascelli, sections in a single representation and indi- or "build vessels symmetrically,"but even cate only the exterior profiles of the frames. more to be able to do so in the absence This holds true until the mid-eighteenth of the inventor who claims to wish to find century, at which time the builders, who il remedioper redurgliin maggioreperfezione, were becoming engineer builders, began to or "the method for reducing them [the grapple with the internal structure of the vessels] to greater perfection."31To these vessels and with the disposition of the parts ends, Dudley puts forward his "invention": designed to strengthen it. One witnesses in this third stage, especially in France, an orgy of minutiae. The engineer builders form assemblages of parts and no longer merely assembled parts. The advantages of systems of reinforcement made visible in sections were the result of "calculations"that aimed to optimize the diverse and contradictory

JacquesGuillerme and HeklneVerin 243 29

244 TheArchaeology of Section ' T .4o1 t40. an ensembleof instrumentsconceived to designthe templatesof differentkinds of ships.Once one knowsthe main dimensions L I i'f- 'QZ D customarilyused, it is a matterhere of l, _ adjustingthe proportionsand formsof all the chief frames.Four instrumentsmake this possible:two tables,one of principalmea- sures,the other of proportions;a compass to relatethe formerto the latterat full scale after the instruments that are supposed to on the templates,which is done with the make their realization possible. This is 30 aid of the fourthinstrument, a quadrangular certainly no accident. On the contrary, woodenmodel whose partsare arrangedand everything leads one to conclude that this calibratedso that the measurementscan order (instruments, then plans and sections) be easilyconverted into regularcurves. expresses the relationship that is established 30 The referencesare lettersand numerical pro- between the general and the particular. gressionscorresponding to the tables, It is the instrument that is mathematical. As compassand model. The sectionsare defined such, it must be universal. Thus we must on the basisof the largestdimensions. The start with it, and follow an order similar to vesselwhose timbersare here being con- that of strict deduction: from principles structedmust be twentyfeet wide in B along to their application to the tangibly diverse. the section correspondingto the point of greatestwidth (Garbodella Mezania), which Still, these instruments, by their very con- 29. R. Dudleo,Dell'arcano is indicatedby the dottedline. ception, manifest a concern for generalizing del mare, 1646, third instrument. and mastering traditional procedures, as When Dudley,in his Dell'arcanodel mare, well as for synthesizing know-how. This 30. R. Dudleo,Dell'arcano presentshis "invention,"we shouldunder- is evident, first of all, in the comparisons del mare, 1646, fourth fourth instrument. standthis word in the sense of discovering, made between the dimensions of different bringingto light and divulginga practice ships and the vessels of different nations kept silent as a tradesecret. Nevertheless, he (first instrument), then in the progression is not contentmerely to describethe steps of proportions characterizing them (second of construction,but furnishesas well the instrument), together with the compass meansto realizethem in accordancewith his which can be used for numerous kinds of intentions.His intentionsrequire working ships (third instrument). The third instru- accordingto such a methodas that by which ment bears on the outer faces of its "legs" the mastercarpenter produces an object, the calibrations corresponding to the pro- in keepingwith the prescribeddimensions portions of one kind of vessel; on the inside and the plansand sectionsthat he has faces, are those corresponding to galleys designedand wishes to apply.However, in and passavolantes.Lastly, the fourth instru- Dudley'swork these plansare presented ment applies to all the sections of one same ship. Although the latter instrument indicates a concern for synthesis, one that submits to constructional considerations, the same is not the case for the third instrument. What could be the usefulness, in designing the forms of a galley, of employing at the same time calibrations used in the design of a vessel? Might this

JacquesGuillerme and Helene Verin 245 32. In 1681, in a memoir sent to doublecalibration be the manifestationnot the court, de Viniers, a captain, cites of any considerationsof usefulnessbut of the Dell'arcanodel mare as one of the contemporarywavering between generalizing rarest of books "in the hands of the synthesisand universalizing abstraction? curious" and requests that a new We knowthat in this perioda greatnumber one be made "which His Majesty of new instrumentswere inventedand each would have printed and would sell time declaredas the universalinstrument cheaply in seaports" (Archives for measuringevery sort of vessel. Such a Nationales, Marine G 86). This claimby itself containsthe contradictionsof book represented a veritable sum- this ambition. mary of all related knowledge at the time in Europe. L'Hydrographieby The fact remains that the ensemble of P. G. Fournier, printed in 1643 instruments presented by Dudley reveals an and more scholarly than scientific, order of conception in which the forming of proposed on the other hand a geo- the material is no longer dictated by the metric method for drawing sections. chronology of the acts of construction, which used to start from the available materials. this connection that one finds expressed in 33. This was during the 1660s, a It now becomes possible to follow the archi- the correspondence the need to obtain period marked by much espionage, tect's intentions: to start from the dimensions the "trueproportions." They come to realize the purchase of foreign vessels and the sectional drawings, or better yet, that knowing the dimensions is not enough and the arrivaland acceptance of to move indiscriminately from one determi- to construct the proper forms, entrusting Dutch carpenters. nation to another. At least such is the this task to the good will of the carpenters. claim made by Dudley. That it took a century One must also direct their "manners," 34. See the January 28, 1660 letter to come close to this ideal should come as (maierein Dudley), that is, the "sweeps,"the by Colbert to Hubac the younger, no surprise.32 methods and the forms. 34At this point we a carpenter sent to Holland who enter a second phase, starting in 1670, where was later to pass through England: Colbert, and after him Seignelay, Minister it is a question of applying oneself to the "Beyond the general observations of the Navy and State Secretary,had to "manner"of forms, and in particularto that you make, you must, if possible, rebuild the French fleet and together they of the cross-sections. 35In 1671, Colbert inform yourself as to the detail of made decisions to obtain the best vessels envisages the creation of building councils the proportions, as it is essential to possible. In following their correspondence, that will bring together, in the ports, the know how many feet of keel a one notices that they give their attention representatives of the administration, officers vessel with 100 cannons has." In first to the dimensions of the vessels, then to and master carpenters. It is a question of P. Clement, Lettres . . de Colbert, their proportions. 33 Regulating the relation conducting "the constructions in such a way vol. 3 (Paris: 1864), p. 234. between the principal dimensions and that one is assured that in building according A "sweep" in shipbuilding terms those of the parts is essential when it is a to the established proportions and dimen- refers to a method of tracing the matter of reproducing the same vessels. In sions the vessels will be successful."36 curves of the ship's main members. handicraft production, identical reproduction presents the greatest of difficulties. It is in In 1681, the schools of construction were 35. See the letter from Colbert founded37and, in 1683, the ordinance for the to Colbert de Terron, March 5, Navy is promulgated whereby the carpenters 1671: "I beg you to consider very are required to make sectional drawings of carefully what I wrote you on vessels before construction. From this period the modes of construction in on, carpenters are subjected to new obli- England and Holland." In Clement, gations concerning the disclosure of their Lettres... de Colbert,p. 346. knowledge. They must teach what they know in the schools, which does not come 36. Letter from Colbert to about without difficulties, and they must 38 Duquesne, September 18, 1678, write memoirs and books on building. The Bibliotheque Nationale, same, however, was also asked of officers Manuscrits, nouvelles acquisitions such as Duquesne and Tourville, and of the francaises, ms 9481. engineer Renau. Inspectors of construction were sent into the ports to get the carpenters 37. Archives Nationales, to talk and to compare, and even to correct, Marine G 86. their practices.39

246 TheArchaeology of Section In 1679, the engineer and mathematician which is "entirely geometric and presup- 38. See Coulomb, "Livre de Renau invents a machine that is supposed to poses many principles thereof," and he then construction." make it possible to copy frames. In 1680, arrives at "the manner of forming all the Tourville has the templates used at Toulon templates."4 A single example of such a dia- 39. See Archives Nationales, reproduced, "in order to send them to every gram suffices for the instruction of all, since Marine C7 164, "Instructions sur le port."4 Blaise, a carpenter, constructs a the "manner"is always the same. This single r6le des inspecteurs de construction." demountable model of a vessel that is dis- "manner"ensures the regularity of the forms patched to the court where it will serve, at a engendered and confirms the geometric 40. Letter from Seignelay to Tour- colloquium including Tourville, Duquesne, - hence universal - character of his method, ville, September 1, 1680, Clement, Renau, Blaise and Hoste, "to regulate once which replaces the "depression of the line Lettres... de Colbert,p. 198. In 1681, and for all the proportions of all the ribs of vaults" of which Hobier spoke, and which Renau went about studying, gathering of every vessel."41Renau there presented his he claimed was traced by rough estimation. and comparing instruments used to machine and a manuscript, "Memoire sur la To read Dudley, or the Livre de constructionby design vessels, in order to make copies construction des vaisseaux dans lequel il y a Coulomb, whom Renau had seen working in of them. "Do not forget," writes une methode pour en conduire les faqons" Toulon, one realizes that these "depressions" Seignelay, "to have the master carpen- ("Memoir on the Building of Vessels: In were in fact rigorously regulated with the ters of Le Havre make the same Which is Contained a Method for Managing help of a number of instruments of various models that you made from the one the Sweeps").42The "machine"tried out sorts, manufacturedwith the help of dimen- from Brest." Letter of September 22, during 1680 is sent to the ports in January sions obtained in the course of construction 1681, Bibliotheque Nationale, of 1681. In the meantime Seignelay tempers and above all regulated according to different Manuscrits, nouvelles acquisitions Renau's geometrical ardor because his dimensions. The regularity of the forms francaises, ms 9481. instrument cannot determine sections: depended on a number of maneuvers and "Youmust not delude yourself that you have calculations that allowed for a margin of 41. Clement, Lettres... de Colbert, already reached such a level of perfection," error. This multitude of different operations p. 198. but only rectify profiles and, he writes, and this fragmentation of calculations are, "above all, you should remember that it is like the "reductions"of one series of shapes 42. Bibliotheque Nationale, not up to you to determine the proportions, to another, properly the work of the crafts- Manuscrits, nouvelles acquisitions but to follow with your machine those man. With Renau'smachine every vertical francaises, ms 9481. determined by the master carpenters."43 section outlines an ellipse and every horizontal section (that is, plan), outlines a 43. Letter from Seignelay to Renau, Renau's method eliminates the traditional parabola.The mechanical generation of June 26, 1681, Bibliotheque combination of circle arcs, arithmetic lines obeys the principles of geometry. The Nationale, Manuscrits, nouvelles progressions and reductions. It creates vessel should therefore be a geometric figure. acquisitions francaises, ms 9481. an ellipse, with the aid of a single mechanism It is nothing of the sort, Vial du Clairbois made up only of a square, over which one would declare one century later.45Once the 44. Letter from Seignelay to Renau, moves a ruler. It is the extremity of this ruler initial enthusiasm for geometry had subsided, June 26, 1681. which, by its movement, describes the Renau's machine was hardly used again, elliptical line. In his memoir, Renau proceeds and ellipses and parabolas continued to be 45. The practice of shipbuilding is at first to a "demonstration"of his machine, created from triangles and circle arcs. "based on geometric operations, even though the body of the vessel is not a geometric figure," in "L'artde la construction. Discours prelimi- naire," in Encyclopediemethodique, Marine, vol. 1, (Paris: 1784), p. iv. H. Pitot, La theoriede la manoeuvredes vaisseaux(Paris: 1731), preface, n.p.

JacquesGuillerme and HelkneVerin 247 In Renau's machine we have an excellent example of the pretensions of the sort of mechanical geometry to which one aspired in the seventeenth century - and of its limits as well. The geometrization of existing forms was certainly desirable and feasible. Geometry by itself, however, cannot alone justify necessity: why choose one form instead of another? If among possible forms there exists an optimum model, it is not geometry but physics that can determine what this might be.

Certainly many great minds - such as Newton, the Bernoullis, Leibniz, Huygens, Euler, Clairaut - had been enthusiastic about applying analysis to the physics of fluids in order to determine the forms of a ship. However, when the Theoriedes evolutionsnavales by Hoste was commented upon byJean Bernoulli and Leibniz, the latter declared his own incompetency 31 regarding the book by Hoste, Theoriede la constructiondes vaisseaux.Newton brought to the attention of shipbuilders the figure of the solid of least resistance, which he examines in his Principle;yet his essential interest, like that of all theoreticians, remains devoting himself to exercises of virtuosity in compu- tation. At best, these theories only lead to an examination of the "supposed forms" of the 46. H. Pitot, La theoriede la hull. They all recoil before the complexity manoeuvredes vaisseaux of "opposites" that link together forms and which the of (Paris: 1731), preface, n.p. dispositions physics fluids alone cannot justify - even if it were carried, 47. Pitot, La theoriede la thanks to the new methods of calculation, so far as to determine "the curve manoeuvre,preface, n.p. whose revolution about a straight line forms the curved surface that must be given to that part of the vessel that is in water."46Such calculations, in fact, only aim to "find on the part of the water the least resistance possible," and do not take into consideration the other "necessities" to which vessels variously loaded with artillery are subject.47So sublime and subtle a geometry applies only to itself, using the ship merely as a pretext.

248 The Archaeologyof Section Fth: Su J. Li.

31. P R Hoste,Theorie de la construction des vaisseaux, 1697, plan in perpendicularsection.

32. P P Hoste,Theorie de la construction des vaisseaux, 1697, the image of vesselsrelative to their rollingand pitching. 32

JacquesGuillerme and Helene Verin 249 48. Bouguer, Trazitedi nr'ie, p. 2 5. The section drawings, reduced to their pro- the insight necessary for "creating balance files, show a stage of the "science of the ship" among so great a number of forces" pre- 49. Dudleo, Dell'-arlcanodel 7mare,p. 9. to which one aspired. Bouguer explains: supposes that one is making the long and the dimensions and dispositions of the inter- difficult effort of treating vessels "like 50. It is nevertheless used to nal reinforcements "are not subject to physical and heterogeneous bodies."51 The measure a vessel's tonnage, establish the strict laws of mechanics." Hence he builders, meanwhile, find in the "invention" its center of gravit', estimate the undertakes to speak of shipbuilding "only and the divulging of new couplings the effects of its displacements (see figure as a mathematician and physicist."4 These chance to advance their own careers. Thus 32), and determine the optimum "details"are left to the discretion of the the case of Salinoc, assistant builder at placement of the masts, and also to workers. It would appear that no progress Le Havre in 1734, whose section drawings 52 cast doubt, swithout arriving at has been made since Dudley, who was only have survived to this day. Here one sees any sufficiently justified counter concerned with the diagrams of the profiles how the internal "fortifications"of different proposals, on the carpenter'srules of sections, and who refused to go into l'altre types of vessels aspire to be the application of proportions. circostanzedell'abbatimento delle coste, e della of an entirely empirical notion of "work" grossezzaefortificazione di quelle,con le late, e guided solely by the theory of the lever and 51. Bouguer, Tra-itedil nazmie,p. ix. fasciame:"the other circumstances of the a great deal of emphasis on the play of cutting of the ribs, and of the width and materials. It is necessary to "buttress, bind, 52. Bibliotheque Nationale, fortification of [the] same [ribs] with deck brace" in order to unite all the forces being Estampes I ('3 fol. plating beams and planking." These are cose exerted like so many levers "in one same comunie ben'inteseda' Capimaestri,e perb effort that will serve as node to the machine 53. "Essai sur l'architecture navale si tralasciano;non volentol'Autore in questosuo and will impede its deterioration," demands ou traite abrege de la construction, Arcanotrattare delle cose ordinarie, e volgari: Pierre Train, former carpenter turned assis- proportion des pieces de bois "common things well understood by the tant engineer of La Rochelle.3 By creating et de fer qui composent le corps master builders, and thus can be omitted, as in 1741 in Paris his Petite Ecole, intended to du vaisseau ainsi que les matiures" the author in this Arcanodoes not wish to complete instruction for builders, Duhamel (Brest: 1782), Archives Nationales, dwell on ordinary, common things."49 du Monceau encouraged this new state MlarineD 25. of mind. His Elemensd'architecture navale, Actually, from Dudley's time to Bouguer's, intended for instruction, are in the tradition 54. La Touche, "Response" the attitude changed. It is no longer the begun by Colbert and Seignelay. The (Rochefort, Noemnber 9, 1775). sufficiency of the geometry that is affirmed, approach he adopts is at once rhapsodic and Frigates with twenty-six cannons but the insufficiency of mechanical physics. 50 synthetic. He presents the different methods would have to carnr two cannons The field has been opened to investigations used by builders - the section he proposes - of eighteen of cast iron at the of interior frameworks founded first on is almost identical to that of Salinoc and bow; "It will be necessanr to adjust common knowledge, then on physical formulates several general principles which the forecastle to this, and to concepts. Obtaining from mathematics all could serve as the subject for a physical increase the swidth of the beamls, deck-beamlsand planks in that part." For less than twenty cannons, it wuillbe necessarn to "sacrifice evenrthing for speed," and hence to lighten the ship by lessening the reinforcements. Archives Nationales, M.larineDl 26.

55. See \ial du Clairbois, "Architecture navale," in Encyclopedie mrethodique,Marine, vol. 1, p. 67. The difficults of building warships "is due to the considerable ueight of the artillers placed on the topsides and at the highest possible point of the vessel, uwhichmakes for uwhatis called a fine batten': 33

250 The Archaeologyof Section and mathematical study. The essential part of for the "forces to be established for the ranks the bases, moreover, or the upper his pedagogical effort consists in having of frigates," in other words their artillery, works will of course be rather heavy introduced doubt, by means of such compar- the responses are accompanied by considera- in themselves, since their structure isons, into the minds of his students. The tions on the importance of reinforcements must be proportionate to the joining of parts can henceforth serve as the for each rank. The evaluations concern rela- weight of the artillery that they object of evaluations. Indeed, a great effort is tionships between force (number of cannons), must support [on each side], and 54 made to perfect reinforcements by adapting swiftness, solidity, expense." Each of the bottom [which must be] them more strictly to the particular intended these terms can be coupled with the others as impenetrable as possible to the purpose of the ship in question. Thus for according to a hierarchy of preference proper enemy's fire. One could partially commerce raiders, for example, swiftness, to specific situations. 5 One can see that sacrifice the safety and solidity of hence lightness, is preferable to solidity and the structural section is an integral part of the the structure, to give greater quality safety. This sort of evaluation of advantages is instruments of preliminary verification and to the ship: such is commonly done improved upon until the end of the century. the choices made by the engineer responsible with commerce-raiders." When an inquiry by the ministry in 1775 asks for the construction of the ship in question.

* _ r 4 CONSTsCitCTIOW IDES VAISSAT'X ,. . _ ;'~.q- .5'; . - ..

34 33. Salinoc,Plan representant l'avant du vaisseau l'Orox ..., 1734, comparisonof two modesof connection.

34. Duhamel du Monceau,Elemens de l'architecture navale ..., 1758, r 9~ longitudinalsection. r-.

35. Duhamel du Monceau,Elemens de l'architecture navale ..., 1758, crosssection.

36. Salinoc,Coupe verticalle de la flutte du Roi, l'Orox, 1734, rV descriptionof a reinforcementdevice I: and its assembly. 35 36

JacquesGuillerme and Helene Verin 251 56. "Notte sur les bois de chene" Archives Nationales, (1776), w . l .'-- 57~. J : : . ~. Marine G 141. XXi S ,!._.! ...... ,.,... 57. Proceedings of the building ~ ?.%.,.~ , ...... r : , ..... ;: . -.i , ~?~X ,, council of Toulon (1678), in the Archives of the port of Toulon 3 Al 1.

58. Deck-beams are small cross-beams fixed to the ribs and support the planks of the deck.

59. Duhamel du Monceau, Du transport,de la conservationet 37 de laforce des bois ... . fojbes de piecesd'assemblage pour suppleer-a It was in connection with the masts and defautdes pieces simples (Paris: spars that these evaluations were soon timber, the essential material, is not easily 1767), p. 532. conducted by precise and rigorously calcu- likened to this rude material which is multi- lated applications of the physical qualities ple and disorderly in its rebelliousness. 60. The mechanisms of the experi- specific to the materials used. The sectional ments made in 1811 by Charles models of masts which Forfait presented in The object of conflicting opinions, the Dupin, then captain of the Corps 1788 to his students at the naval academy of Naval Engineers, are indistin- bear witness to the extraordinarysophistica- accommodatedto prescribed measurements guishable in their principles from tion of the coupling methods being practiced and pre-established plans. Its shaping can the tests conducted in the ports in France at the time. Unknown to other only be appreciated for "reasons that are during the eighteenth century to nations, these methods might well be a result only sensed and cannot be written down study the flexibility of timbers: of the system of emulation that encouraged on paper,"assert the carpenters of Toulon various weights were hung from the the advancement of artisans who were in 1678, in a document declaring their ends of beams different in length primarily concerned with the invention and own prerogatives as well as those of the and width, and with a variety of disclosure of trade secrets. material.57 In the eighteenth century they tvpes of wood. Dupin's apparatus, consent to disclosing these "reasons."It is however, made it possible to mea- In addition, to look at the indentations, one difficult to know exactly what is attributable sure the flexion - the "descension" cannot fail to recognize in them a kind of to them and what are the results of the - of the timbers, whereas the imitative reconstruction of the entire timber first tests of the resistance of materials in the others only had the point of break- which a marine carpenter, in 1776, defined following statement by Duhamel: "The age as a criterion. Dupin's stated as "a wooden body formed by the coupling assemblage of masts of several pieces is objective was to "establish the of numerous cones, some larger than others, comparable to the assemblage of trussed dimensions of the parts (of the ship) which cover one another."56Is it artifice deck beams, 8 as the finishes (of the mast) in a less arbitrarymanner." See or nature that dictates this definition? As the are skillfully joined to the spindle by coak- "Experiences sur la flexibilite, builders slowly divulged the secrets of indentations.... In one piece being loaded, la force et l'elasticite des bois," forms, they never ceased to be spokesmen one part of the fibers is in dilation, another Jolunal de 'EcolePolytechnicque, 17e - often haughty - of material. The contempt in condensation.... With our deck beams cahier, vol. 10 (Paris:January 1815). in which the builders were often held is con- we have always taken great care that the

252 The Archaeologyof Section 38 .~z-^- 37. Salinoc,Coupe verticalle de la flutte

38. Vial de Clairbois,Traite elmentaire de la construction des vaisseaux de guerre, 1805, sectionof the web-frames.

39. Vialde Clairbois,Traite elementaire M i3 ^^HL_l^ J de la construction des vaisseaux de guerre, 1805.

6_BL~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_'L~~~~~~~40. Forfait, Traite de la mature des vaisseaux . . ,p~~.39-- ., 1788, sectionsdescribing structureof mast. indents of the reinforcements should be disposed in such a manner as to resist compres- sion; and those of the spindles and tie beams, in such a manner as to be able to resist Bd tension. It is upon this principle alone that the entire theory of reinforced parts rests."59

In the on the resis- following experiments *.UA .H tance of wood up to the beginning of the nineteenth century, one begins to appreciate the "theoretical" quality of the general principle formulated by Duhamel.60 The transition from the terms "dilation" and "condensation" to "tension" and "compres- sion," in the physical science of what wooden bodies would sustain, leads one to think that Duhamel is proceeding according to the method mentioned above, attempting to make the synthesis of know-how coincide with the application of principles. This "theory of transition" is typical of the theories one finds in his works in general. It illustrates the determining role played by the "inspectors"in the technical progress of the eighteenth century.

JacquesGuillerme and Helene Vrin 253 61. Such as in the following In Forfait's propositions mentioned above, sectionswhich break down into three passage, which is just one of many, one can well admire the careful detail of the categories:scale, analogy, and abstraction. The in the J. Martin edition of indentations imagined for the construction firsttwo categoriesare interconnected. De re aedificatoria:L'Architecture of compound masts. But at this point one There is little need to point out the limits et Art de bien bastirdu Sr. Leon- may question the validity and the extent of withinwhich the conservationof analogical BaptisteAlbert (Paris: 1553) p. 56. such exercises of virtuosity. The hand is free propertiesis restrictedin mattersof the "For this reason, in whatever case, to invent as long as it has room for its dia- resistanceof materials,for example,when we shall imitate nature, which grams and as long as it does not have to test, the scalesof criticaldimensions are not fits bones to bones, blends flesh, in mediasres, the good will of the material to corrected.As a result,in architectureoften fibers, nerves and other connectives be assembled. It is the feasibility of the the sectionrepresents nothing but estab- lengthwise, widthwise, upward, project that is in question here, as well as the lishedcustoms! Abstraction, for its part,at downward, inward and backward, estimation of economic advantage. In con- firstfinds itself presentin analogywhen, even (in short) in all directions templating Forfait's combinations, one begins followingAlberti, edifices are metaphorically and diameters...." to sense the complacency that the sectional likenedto animalorganisms.61 A graphic design so readily affords the conceiving description,in this case,is an efficientmeans imagination. The arbitrarybegins to creep in for this conversion;one need only recall naturally,though one may, however, attempt Leonardo'sstudies representing architec- to limit it in its audacity.In other words, once turallythe open structureof the brain-pan one has recognized the section's capability andhis schematicreductions of the osteo- of sustaining an indefinite variety of proposi- muscularmachinery, which abstracta functions one must make a special effort to know tionalorder from the confusionof a dissected the limits within which this spontaneity, this corpse.One wouldhave to wait until the serendipity is at leisure to function. One time of Le Gendreand his homolographic would think that these limits have some sectionsto see the imageof a supposedlypre- relation to the gnoseological properties of cise topographyof the organicmachine.

254 TheArchaeology of Section I

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C- .'..' 42 41. Anonymous,Fascicolo di Medicina, 1494, anatomyclass at Padua, theprofessor reads his textfrom the chair while a prosecutor performsthe cut directedby a demonstrator.

42. Leonardoda Vinci,drawing of a schematicdissection of theposterior cervicalregion, 1 513.

43. Le Gendre,from L'Anatomie homalographique, 1853, transverse sectionof the upperthigh of a man at the height of thefemurs apophysis. 43

JacquesGuillerme and Helene Verin 255 Except for those manipulations that harden sectionschange in nature,perceptually and and in some way petrify the organic com- structually,even while the technicaland posite, it is only at the cost of an incessant conceptualinstruments of representations oscillation between the imprecise object of becomemore refined.A sectionis alwaysthe dissection and its careful representation that imageof a surface.However strong the effort anatomy can hope to come close to the of abrasionon the fragmentof naturein necessarily abstract typology of the living question,the dissectinginstrument and the organism. Yet the validity of this abstraction graphicdevice, hypothetically linked to it, has its limits depending on the range of the will still alwaysencounter other abstract field it has in mind and the scale of the instru- arrangementsof surfaces. ments involved. If we address a larger scale, such as that which nature offers directly in Meditatingin 1873 on the divisibilityof the form of a cliff, an all-inclusive observation organizedmatter, Liard, whose mere name will not dwell on details. The painter might evokesthe derisoryostentations of the repub- intervene with his psycho-sensorially syn- lican Sorbonne,was astonishedthat "thought 62. L. Liard, Des definitionsgeo- thetic equipment, but only the gaze of the pursuesthe irreducibleelement without metriqueset des definitionsempiriques geologist, indeed the quarrier,is capable in its ever attainingit," even though"observation (Paris:1873), pp. 140-41. questioning of identifying and understanding had stoppedlong before."From this he the significant details, those it recognizes at inferredthat "weare in the presenceof the the end of a long education nourished with infinite,"an infinitethat leadsoddly to schemata and abstract categories. And in this "an infinite raised to an infinite power."62 case the broadening of our field of vision to In so sayinghe prefiguredall at once the include all details is comparable to the cosmic more modernnotion of layersof "levelsof emission of background noise. And in fact it organization." He recalls to mind, quite is only the anomalies in the background noise opportunely, that the idea of the section, which beckon to the investigator. It is a doubtless a primordial one ontologically, has different situation when, in the opposite case, a pragmatic consistency that justifies the the gaze focuses on smaller and smaller appropriatenessof theoretical reasoning at objects. The phenomena registered in the a clear and distinct level of questioning.

Translatedfrom the Frenchby StephenSartarelli

256 TheArchaeology of Section 44 45

44. Excavationin a marblequarry, Carrara,Italy.

45. Sectionof a liliaceous parenchyma.

JacquesGuillerme and Helene Ve6in 257