Research Projects

The tercentenary of Claude-François Menestrier S.J. (1631-1701)

Judi Loach, Gérard Sabatier (Université Mendès-France, Grenoble), Yves Jocteur-Montrozier (Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon), Rev. Michel Durand (Diocèse de Lyon), et al.

The French Jesuit Claude-François Menestrier operated not as an architect but as an inventeur, the mediator between academic, ecclesiastical and civic patrons commissioning works and artists and artisans designing and executing them, responsible for writing briefs and then supervising their translation from words through drawings to material form. As such he was the central figure behind a large number of projects, usually combining architecture and decorative arts, often with related performances and publications and sometimes also including commemorative medals. The lack of treatises to guide his own practice in these various fields led him to write his own, codifying existing practice but also regulating it according to Aristotelian principles. Due in part to the subsequent disappearance of the works he oversaw (many of which were intended to be ephemeral, celebrating specific events) and the comparatively anonymous role of an inventeur, he is best remembered today through his publications, in particular as the most influential theorist of heraldry until well into the eighteenth century and as an early exponent of historical writing based on material evidence (architectural fragments and archaeology; inscribed stones and epigraphy; coins and medals, and numismatics). My own research, over the last quarter century, has largely consisted in recovering traces of Menestrier's design work and then interpreting this in the light of his theoretical work.

The French Ministry of Culture designated the tercentenary of Menestrier's death as one of the national events for official celebration in 2005, and the DRAC (regional offices of the ministry) allocated funding for a major international conference in Grenoble and Lyons in autumn of that year. In 2002, having begun research into Menestrier for my doctoral thesis quarter of a century before, and authored twenty articles or chapters on him in academic publications since then, I was appointed, along with academic colleagues and specialist librarians, to the organising committee for these celebrations.

I also became the co-organisor of the largest ever exhibition devoted to Menestrier, at France's second greatest library, the Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon (September-December 2005), and co-author of the associated publication; consisting of books and manuscripts, sketches and oil paintings, a sculpture and a model, coins and woodblocks, and photographs of objects too large or fragile to be brought into the gallery, the seventy-odd items displayed were drawn primarily from the library's own collections but were also loaned by a dozen libraries and museums throughout France (a much-reduced version is available, longer term, in digital form: http://www.bm-lyon.fr/expo/05/menestrier/menestrier.htm. In addition I organised a smaller exhibition for the Catholic diocese (September-December 2005), focusing on the influence of Menestrier's theology and spirituality on his artistic productions. As well as co-chairing the conference and delivering a paper at it I provided a lecture and guided tour to accompany the exhibitions, and an additional article for the library's own journal.

A French academic publisher anticipates producing a book of essays derived from a selection of papers presented at the conference and subsequently revised. Other ongoing projects related to this one include the critical bibliography of Menestrier's publications (by Alison Saunders, University of Aberdeen, and Alison Adams and Stephen Rawles, University of Glasgow), to which I act as occasional advisor, and my own critical edition of Menestrier's early manuscripts (see below: L'Idée de l'Estude d'un Honneste Homme).