(b Lyon, ?3-9 June 1514; d Paris, 8 Jan 1570). French architect and writer. He was the most important French architect of the 16th century and, with his contemporaries Pierre Lescot and Jean Bullant, was one of the founders of the classical style in France. In his buildings he attempted to synthesize the elements of ancient Roman and Renaissance Italian architecture with French traditions of design and construction, adding innovations that stemmed from his concern with STEREOTOMY, the theory of stone-cutting. He published two treatises, of which Le Premier Tome de l'architecture was the most comprehensive of the 16th century in France. It remained unsurpassed until Fran?ois Blondel's Cours d'architecture in the 18th century.

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