BOOKS
Jacques Devaulx and the science of navigation

Book cover – Jacques Devaulx – Nautical Works

Interior view – Jacques Devaulx – Nautical Works

Interior view – Nautical Works

Interior view – Nautical Works

Interior view – Nautical Works

Interior view – Nautical Works

Interior view – Nautical Works

Interior view – Nautical Works

Interior view – Nautical Works

LISTEN TO POST

0:00 / 0:00

Le Havre – a nautical heritage

When the seas were still full of white spots, Jacques Devaulx drew maps that combined science and imagination. Born in Le Havre, the navigator was a hydrographer, cosmographer and royal pilot. His work from 1583, Les premières œuvres, combines nautical practice with the knowledge of his time and was used for both education and courtly representation. It is based on Devaulx’s own notes, which he brought back from his travels to America, among other places. TASCHEN has republished the work as a complete facsimile edition.

Knowledge in image and movement

Les premières œuvres comprises 31 lavishly designed and colourfully illuminated folios. They show nautical instruments such as astrolabes and Jacob’s staffs, detailed world maps, astrological tables and harbour views. Particularly noteworthy are the so-called volvelles – rotating discs for calculating astronomical data, which are considered the forerunners of mechanical calculating aids. Content and design are closely interwoven: The combination of scientific precision, artistic ambition and functional utility makes Devaulx’s work an outstanding testimony to early modern navigation.

Insights into seafaring in the 16th century

The facsimile edition is accompanied by two introductory essays and explanatory commentaries written by an interdisciplinary team led by Élisabeth Hébert and Véronique Hauguel-Thill. The texts place Devaulx’s work in its historical context and shed light on life at sea, the sailors’ self-image and the challenges of exploring new routes. It becomes particularly clear how closely mathematical theory and practical navigation were intertwined in the 16th century.

The documentation of a changing world view

Jacques Devaulx was not only a master of navigation, but also a chronicler of his time – a man who mastered the sea as well as drawing and thinking. His works combine mathematical precision with artistic depth and show how inextricably linked knowledge and world view were in the Renaissance. Les premières œuvres is not just a nautical textbook, but the visual manifesto of a way of thinking that still understood the sky as part of the sea. A silent monument – and a testimony to the curiosity that still drives people today.

Data

Further information

Further information on the book Jacques Devaulx – Nautical Works (advertising) can be found on the Taschen Verlag website.

Compliance

The book was kindly made available to us by the publisher. The presentation and rating of HYPERMADE remains independent of this and is based solely on the content of the book.