ABSTRACT
Parisian woman of letters, Madame Louise-Florence d'Epinay, notes in 1771 in her correspondence with the Abbe Ferdinand Galiani that knowledge was not enough; without practice, still denied to women, there was no hope of being useful to society. This chapter examines important themes from the life narratives of architects working in France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries which, despite women's exclusion from practice, demonstrate the results of specific female intervention. A comparison of building with the pursuit of war illuminates the gendered practice of architecture in early modern France. Crucial female influence first appears at the beginning of architects' careers. In a system of patronage personal introductions were extremely advantageous, and usually a contact of either father or mother was most efficacious. According to French academic theory, it was the responsibility of architects to produce a design appropriate to their clients' status and character, since bienseance or appropriateness was one of the essentials of good building.
