Cordemoy, Abbé Jean-Louis de

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Cordemoy, Abbé Jean-Louis de (c.1660–1713). French priest and architectural theorist (not to be confused with L. -G. de Cordemoy (1651–1722) ). His Nouveau Traité de Toute l'Architecture (New Treatise on the Whole of Architecture—1706) was an important influence on the search for truth, simplicity, and honest expression of form, drawing on the works of Perrault, and demonstrating an early understanding of the sophistication of Gothic structures. His argument was essentially in favour of Classical clarity with the Orders used structurally, all unnecessary ornament eschewed, design that drew upon Nature and Antiquity, and buildings that expressed their purpose. He was an important precursor of Neo-Classicism, and an influence on Laugier.

Bibliography

Cordemoy (1714);
Herrmann (1962);
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, xxv (1962), 278–320, and xxvi (1963), 90–123;
Rykwert (1980)

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