"Manière de bien bastir pour touttes sortes des personnes"
This engraving comes from an architectural treatise written in 1623 by Pierre le Muet intended as a copy-book of architectural designs for the simple and domestic buildings of the French seventeenth century.
This sectional drawing illustrates the section of many of the existing buildings in Richelieu, with which the treatise is contemporary. All the period terms for the elements of the charpentes are itemised.
2009 celebrates the 30th year of the firm SARL MERLOT - Charpente et Couverture located on the Richelieu industrial estate (see map on the right). The firm's leadership will pass from the founder M. Etienne to his son Fabrice on 11 December 2010. Entirely by coincidence, the coloured photo below shows a new oak roof structure by MERLOT that is almost identical to that drawn above by Pierre Le Muet, nearly 350 years ago.
In the humble house of Abbé Henri Proust, the roof trusses are king-post trusses in oak, and actually ARE 350 years old. As Merlot's 2009 catch phrase says:
"La Qualité défie le Temps - Quality defies time (and weather!)"
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