ABSTRACT
The building having come down heavily, metaphorically speaking, on the side of M. Patte, he was emboldened to enter the lists again. Jacques Germain Soufflot's mysterious new principle was merely the ancient device of tying his masonry together by means of metal bars. Rondelet wrote, in 1797, a memoir recounting the history of the building, explaining how the loads were taken, describing the nature of the failure, and recommending a heroic method of re-construction. The chapter considers the building problems, what may be described as public buildings. In the eighteenth century domestic building attained its maximum degree of grandeur, even sacrificing something of comfort and convenience in the process. The dissolution of the monasteries in England gave a great impetus to the building of private houses by distributing among a new nobility great wealth which had hitherto been administered by the Church.
