imported>Pieternierop: I changed the caption with the image because it only shows the footpiece of the cosmolabe. In the wikipedia article about the Cosmolabe itself I added a picture of a fully assembled cosmolabe and added a link to the original book by Jacques Besson where one can find a picture of a fully assembled cosmolabe on page 27 and page 42.

2025-04-05T13:11:29Z

I changed the caption with the image because it only shows the footpiece of the cosmolabe. In the wikipedia article about the Cosmolabe itself I added a picture of a fully assembled cosmolabe and added a link to the original book by Jacques Besson where one can find a picture of a fully assembled cosmolabe on page 27 and page 42.

New page

{{Short description|French inventor and engineer (c.1540–1573)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Jacques Besson
| birth_date = {{circa|birth year|1540}}
| birth_place = Colombières, Escarton de Oulx (now [[Cesana Torinese]], Italy)
| death_date = {{death year and age|1573|1540}}
| death_place = England
| nationality = French
| field = [[Engineering]], [[mathematics]], [[instrumentation]]
}}
[[File:Cosmolabe, Jacques Besson, 1567.jpg|thumb|Foot piece of a Cosmolabe by Jacques Besson 1566]]
'''Jacques Besson''' (1540?–1573) was a French [[Protestant]] inventor, mathematician, and philosopher, chiefly remembered for his popular treatise on machines ''Theatrum Instrumentorum'' (1571–1572), which saw many reprints in different languages.

==Life==
Little information has survived about Besson's early life; he described himself as being from Colombières, part of Escarton de Oulx, now in Cesana Torinese, Italy.<ref name=keller>{{cite book | last = Keller | first = Alex | title = A Theatre of Machines | publisher = Macmillan | year = 1965 |page=[https://archive.org/details/theatreofmachine01kell/page/7 7] | url =https://archive.org/details/theatreofmachine01kell| url-access = registration }}</ref> He was most likely born around 1540.<ref name=davis>{{cite journal | last = Davis | first = Natalie Zemon | title = The Protestantism of Jacques Besson | journal = Technology and Culture | volume = 7 | issue = 4 |page=513 | publisher = Johns Hopkins University Press | date = Autumn 1966 | jstor = 3101852| doi = 10.2307/3101852}}</ref> In the early 1550s he is recorded as teaching mathematics in [[Paris]],<ref name=davis/> following which the next account of him dates from April 1557, when he is recorded in the minutes of the town council of [[Lausanne]], Switzerland, as being paid for models of [[pump]]s and [[fountain]]s.

In 1559 he published his first treatise in [[Zurich]], the ''De absoluta ratione extrahendi olea et aquas e medicamentis simplicibus'' (on the complete doctrine of extracting oils and waters from simple drugs), featuring an introduction by [[Conrad Gesner]]. That same year he moved to [[Geneva]] where in 1561 he requested permission to become a citizen of Geneva. His entry in Geneva's ''Livre de Bourgeois'' notes that citizenship was awarded as a result of his services "in teaching the art and science of mathematics"<ref name=keller/>

In 1562 Besson became the [[pastor]] of the [[Protestant Reformed Church]] in [[Villeneuve-de-Berg]], France, [[Olivier de Serres]] having sent a request to the [[Company of Pastors]] for a minister. However, less than two years later he was forced out by a rival.<ref>Keller, p. 32</ref> By 1565 he was back in Paris, where in 1567 he published his second treatise, ''Le Cosmolabe'', which described an elaborate instrument based on the [[astrolabe]] which could be used for [[navigation]], [[surveying]], [[cartography]], and [[astronomy]]. ''Le Cosmolabe'' also introduced a number of mechanical inventions that he hoped to describe in more detail in a future work. Besson was described as a professor of mathematics from [[Orléans]].

==''Theatrum Instrumentorum''==
When [[Charles IX of France|King Charles IX]] of France made a royal visit to Orléans in 1569, Besson presented to the King a draft of his new treatise, what was to become the ''Theatrum Instrumentorum''. and returned with him to [[Paris]] as "master of the King's Engines". Charles gave Besson exclusive rights to his designs in that same year. While employed by the court, Besson also created an ingenious screw-cutting lathe that was semi-automatic, in that the operator only needed to pull and release a cord.<ref>{{cite book | last = Woodbury | first = Robert S. | title = Studies in the History of Machine Tools | publisher = MIT Press | year = 1972 | page = [https://archive.org/details/studiesinhistory00robe/page/54 54] | url = https://archive.org/details/studiesinhistory00robe/page/54 | isbn = 0-262-73033-2 | url-access = registration }}</ref>

Besson's ''Theatrum Instrumentorum'' (Theater of Machines), was completed and published in 1571 or 1572. It was a unique work; previously, works on engineering and technology such as Valturio's ''De re militari'' (1472), Biringuccio's ''Pirotechnia'' (1540) and [[Georgius Agricola|Agricola]]'s ''[[De re metallica]]'' (1556), had had only limited descriptions of new inventions or recounted inventions of the past without much detail. In contrast, Besson's work was a collection of his own new inventions with detailed illustrations of each engraved by [[Jacques Androuet du Cerceau]] to his specifications. Some of his designs suggested important improvements to [[lathe]]s and the waterwheel. The [[Latin]] captions to the highly detailed drawings were sparse, however, which would seem to indicate that the text was probably produced in a hurry. Even the title page does not give the name of the printer or the date of publication. The rush in publishing the book may have been due to the crackdown on French [[Protestant]]s that culminated in the [[St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre]] of 1572.<ref>Keller, p. 7</ref>

Although Besson was favoured by King Charles IX, he feared the increasing anti-Protestant sentiment in France, and emigrated to England shortly after the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572, where he died in 1573.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Battison | first = Edwin A. | title = Stone-Cutting and Polishing Lathe, by Jacques Besson. | journal = Technology and Culture | volume = 7 | issue = 2 | pages =202–205 | publisher = Johns Hopkins University Press | date = Spring 1966 | jstor = 3102084| doi = 10.2307/3102084| author2 = Besson, Jacques }}</ref>

The ''Theatrum Instrumentorum'' had proved so popular that a second edition appeared in 1578, with more detailed descriptions of the instruments and machines by François Béroalde de Verville. The copper plates from the original edition were reused, except for four which were replaced by new engravings produced by [[René Boyvin]].

==Honours==
[[Besson Rock]] in [[Antarctica]] is named after Jacques Besson.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{external links|date=November 2021}}
{{commons category|Jacques Besson (engineer)}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Jacques Besson}}
* http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/HST/Besson/besson.htm
* http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9078938/Jacques-Besson
* http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/HST/Besson/besson-introduction.htm
* http://libcoll.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/elib/rara/YD9NH338 (another digitized version)


{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Besson, Jacques}}
[[Category:1540s births]]
[[Category:1573 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century French inventors]]
[[Category:French Protestants]]
[[Category:Huguenots]]
[[Category:16th-century French writers]]
[[Category:16th-century French male writers]]

Jacques Besson - Revision history