AVISTA - Villard de Honnecourt

Villard de Honnecourt

AVISTA was founded in 1984 to promote study of the drawings and recipes (Paris, Bibliothéque Nationale, MS Fr 19093) of a talented, enigmatic 13th-century French artist named Villard de Honnecourt (Wilars dehonecort; Vilars dehoncort). Little is known about his life or his profession, or why he travelled as extensively as he did.

Villard's diversity of interests make him fascinating and the ideal 'patron saint' of our association - he has been called a "Gothic Leonardo da Vinci" and exhibited interest in timber and stone construction, mechanical devices, clockwork, and a hydraulic saw, a siege machine, animals, antique statuettes, church furnishings, and more.

For more detailed information about Villard, see Carl F. Barnes, Jr.'s biography from the Macmillan Dictionary of Art and an English translation of Barnes' "Le 'Problème' de Villard de Honnecourt" from Les Bâtisseurs des Cathédrales Gothiques.

New!!
Critical Edition

The Portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Fr 19093): A New Critical Edition and Color Facsimile with a glossary by Stacey L. Hahn, Carl F. Barnes, Jr., July 2009

Portfolio

View some sample images from Villard's manuscript with basic descriptions.

The Villard Pages

Carl F. Barnes, Jr., professor emeritus of art history, Oakland University, maintains the canonical Villard pages, including a bibliography of writings from 1666 to the present concerning Villard. Barnes' website is www.villardman.net.

Basic Villard Bibliography

This is a basic bibliography on Villard and his notebook. View it in a web page; or it is also available as a MSWord file, WordPerfect 2.0 file, and EndNote file.

New CD-ROM

Those interested in Villard may wish to take notice of AVISTA member Roland Bechmann's new CD-ROM:

Le Carnet de Villard de Honnecourt, l'Art et les techniques d'un constructeur gothique.

Collection Bibliotheque nationale de France/ L'OEIL DE L'HISTORIEN (www.bnf.fr), co-produced with Hexagramm, SDI, with the participation of The British Library, the Centre national de la Cinematographie, the Ministere de la recherche, the Conseil regional de Picardie, and the Conseil regional d'Ile de France.

To purchase CD-ROM (Mac and PC) for €46, consult Montparnasse Multimedia (www.montparnasse.net), with associated publishers in Canada and England.