ArchéoSciences 2017/1 No 41
Journal article

Amboise Tour des Minimes Stones, Mortars and Facing of Walls. Comparative Study of the 1495-1496 Account Book, Archeology Research and Petrographic Analysis

Pages 25 to 43

Cite this article

  • GAUGAIN, Lucie,
  • BRÉHERET, Jean-Gabriel,
  • MECHLING, Jean-Michel
  • and PRIGENT, Daniel,
2017. Amboise Tour des Minimes Stones, Mortars and Facing of Walls. Comparative Study of the 1495-1496 Account Book, Archeology Research and Petrographic Analysis. ArchéoSciences, 2017/1 No 41, p.25-43. DOI : 10.4000/archeosciences.4868. URL : https://shs.cairn.info/journal-archeosciences-2017-1-page-25?lang=en.
  • Gaugain, Lucie.,
  • et al.
« Amboise Tour des Minimes Stones, Mortars and Facing of Walls. Comparative Study of the 1495-1496 Account Book, Archeology Research and Petrographic Analysis ». ArchéoSciences, 2017/1 No 41, 2017. p.25-43. CAIRN.INFO, shs.cairn.info/journal-archeosciences-2017-1-page-25?lang=en.
  • Gaugain, L.,
  • Bréheret, J.-G.,
  • Mechling, J.-M.
  • and Prigent, D.
(2017). Amboise Tour des Minimes Stones, Mortars and Facing of Walls. Comparative Study of the 1495-1496 Account Book, Archeology Research and Petrographic Analysis. ArchéoSciences, No 41(1), 25-43. https://doi.org/10.4000/archeosciences.4868.

https://doi.org/10.4000/archeosciences.4868

Abstract
Authors

Cite this article

  • Gaugain, L.,
  • Bréheret, J.-G.,
  • Mechling, J.-M.
  • and Prigent, D.
(2017). Amboise Tour des Minimes Stones, Mortars and Facing of Walls. Comparative Study of the 1495-1496 Account Book, Archeology Research and Petrographic Analysis. ArchéoSciences, No 41(1), 25-43. https://doi.org/10.4000/archeosciences.4868.
  • Gaugain, Lucie.,
  • et al.
« Amboise Tour des Minimes Stones, Mortars and Facing of Walls. Comparative Study of the 1495-1496 Account Book, Archeology Research and Petrographic Analysis ». ArchéoSciences, 2017/1 No 41, 2017. p.25-43. CAIRN.INFO, shs.cairn.info/journal-archeosciences-2017-1-page-25?lang=en.
  • GAUGAIN, Lucie,
  • BRÉHERET, Jean-Gabriel,
  • MECHLING, Jean-Michel
  • and PRIGENT, Daniel,
2017. Amboise Tour des Minimes Stones, Mortars and Facing of Walls. Comparative Study of the 1495-1496 Account Book, Archeology Research and Petrographic Analysis. ArchéoSciences, 2017/1 No 41, p.25-43. DOI : 10.4000/archeosciences.4868. URL : https://shs.cairn.info/journal-archeosciences-2017-1-page-25?lang=en.

https://doi.org/10.4000/archeosciences.4868

French
English

Charles VIII (1483-1498) construction period in the castle at Amboise took place from 1492 to 1498. In 1495-1496, an account book was written mainly about the well-preserved Tour desMinimes, a tower one could climb up on horseback. A comparative study of the building, along with the account book, cut stones (petrography and statistics), mortars (grain size distribution and lime) and the whitewash jointing, requires a specific methodology and a constant dialogue between architectural historians, geologists, and archaeologists. The research enables to identify the name of the stones and the technical vocabulary used at the end of the middle ages. Moreover, it proves that a chief stone dresser probably worked on the tower, and that the building site was likely to have been split into several centres and workshops; and it also reveals the rhythm of work to have been intense, since for the tower only, more than 15m of vaulted masonry had been created. All this have been allowed thanks to workers with an empirical knowledge of materials, the high quality of the chosen materials and the remarkable implementation they did. It resulted in an outstanding genuine edifice in which four revolutions and a half climb around an open work newel.

  • mortar
  • archaeology
  • petrography
  • architecture
  • tuffeau
  • bond
  • building site
  • accounts

Publisher keywords: accounts, archaeology, architecture, bond, building site, mortar, petrography, tuffeau

Uploaded: 07/10/2017

https://doi.org/10.4000/archeosciences.4868