Villard de Honnecourt lived in 13th century France and may have been an itinerant master-builder of Picardy in northern France. His fame rests entirely on his surviving portfolio of 33 sheets of parchment containing about 250 drawings from about the 1230s, which is in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (MS Fr 19093). It appears to be a model-book, with a wide range of religious and secular figures suitable for sculpture, and architectural plans, elevations and details, ecclesiastical objects and mechanical devices, with copious annotations. Other subjects such as animals and human figures also appear.

While Villard has been most praised for his work in architecture, there is no evidence of him ever working as an architect during this time period. In fact, architecture was rarely considered a job during the Middle Ages, where the actual laborers and mason overseers were to be credited.

Among the devices Villard sketched are a perpetual-motion machine, a mill-driven saw, a number of automata, one of which depicts a simple escapement mechanism, the first known in the West, lifting devices, war engines as well as a number of anatomical and geometric sketches for portraiture and architecture.

Villard apparently traveled through many of the cathedral building-sites in 13th century France and recorded the construction work in his sketchbook in great detail. Of particular interest are drawings of the Laon cathedral bell towers and the Reims cathedral nave being built, which provide a valuable clue for building techniques of High Gothic architecture.

Villard's vast diversity in his sketchbook has caused him to be compared to such great minds as Leonardo Da Vinci who also specialized in many different categories of art and science.

Perpetual Motion Information (Perpetual Motion Machine ...
... perpetual sources such as ocean currents are capable of moving "perpetually" (for as long as that energy ... Science magazine, on perpetual motion ... Villard de Honnecourt ...
www.perpetually.net/perpetual_motion/encyclopedia.htm

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www.perpetually.net
... www.perpetually.net/apparent_perpetual_motion ... www.perpetually.net/science/technology/energy/unproven_concepts/perpetual_motion ... www.perpetually.net/villard_de_honnecourt/
www.perpetually.net/urllist.txt

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