PERRAULT, CLAUDE, an eminent architect, born at Paris in 1613. l le was brought up to the medical profession, and took his degree as doctor of the faculty of Paris in 1641. He practised little, however, excepting among his friends and the poor ; and having a decided taste for drawing and the fine arts, he turned his attention to the science of archi tecture, in which he became greatly distinguished. When the Academy of Sciences was founded, under the patronage of Colbert, in the year 1666, Perrault, who was one of the first members, was appointed to select a spot for an obser vatory; and he also gave a plan of the building which was to be executed. When it was resolved, under Louis XIV., to proceed in completing the palace of the Louvre, all the eminent architects were invited to give in designs of the fapde ; and that of Perrault was preferred. This is accounted the masterpiece of French architecture, and it would alone suffice to transmit his name with honour to posterity. It wits in vain that persons, jealous of his reputation, endeavoured to make the public believe that the real designer was Le Vean ; they entirely failed in their proof, and the glory of Perrault remained untarnished. When Colbert, after the king's first conquests, proposed to construct a grand triumphal arch to his honour, Perrault's design had the preference, and the edifice was commenced. It was, however, never finished. In its masonry, Perrault employed the practice of the ancients, of rubbing the surface of the stones together with grit and water, so as to make them cohere without mortar. Other works of this architect were, the chapel at Seeaux, that of Notre Dame, the church of the Petits Pores in Paris, the water-alley at Versailles, and most of the designs of the vases in the park of that palace. By the king's command, he undertook a translation of Vitruvius, with notes. published in 1673. All the designs for the plates of this work were drawn by himself, and have been esteemed as master-pieces of the kind. lie afterwards published an abridgement of
that author, for the use of students. 1.1e likewise facilitated the study of architecture by a work entitled Ordonnance des Cinq Esp?ces de Colonnes selon la Methode des Anciens. In the preface to this work, he maintains that there is no natural foundation for the architectural proportions ; but that they may be infinitely varied, according to taste and fancy—an opinion which gave much offence, though justified the practice of the ancients themselves. A collection of the drawings of several machines, which he at diGrent times invented, was published after his death in -Ito. This excel lent artist holds a respectable place aniong writers in his original priilession, and, besides various memoirs on this subject, communicated to the Academy of Sciences, he pub lished Memoirs pour servitar Histuire Yaturelle des Jnimaux, in •-) vols. Ilk other writings of this class are contained in his Essais de Ph ysique,1 vols. One of these volumes relates entirely to the ()roan of hearing, under the title of Traite de Bruit. Another relates to the mechanism of animals, in hich he ant icipated Stahl in some of his opinions respecting the tbnctions of the animal soul. In other parts of these cssa K. he treats on the peristaltic motion or the intestines,— on the senses,—on nutrition, &c. He died in Paris in MSS, 75.
Perrault published a Dissertation upon the :Music of the Anti, nts, in 16;s0. Ile had, indeed, given his opinion upon the subject very freely, in the notes to his translation of Vitruvins, in 1673; where, in his commentary of the chapter upon Harmonic Music according to the doctrine of Aristoxenus, he declares that " there is nothing in Aristoxenus, who was the first that wrote upon concords and discords. nor in any of the Greek authors who wrote after him, that manifests the ancients to have had the least idea of the use of concords in music of many parts.''