Il rilievo dei ponti e la cultura geometrica francese

"\"Fernand De Dartein wrote five volumes about masonry bridges, titled Etudes sur les ponts en pierre remaquables par leur décoration, antérieurs au XIX siècle. Four volumes were published between 1907 and 1912 and represent the only complete research about French bridges of XVIII century, a landmark for the evolution of construction techniques of masonry bridges.. In these books, aesthetics and functionality, construction techniques and ornaments appear as parts of the bridge plan. The books are an important documentation that can be used even today to understand the projects and to preserve the structures.. To understand the importance of De Dartein’s work, we have to analyze the theories and practices of masonry bridges in France. The studies about the static behavior and the different shapes of arches, the stereotomy and the geometry were applied to realize new shapes of masonry bridges with elliptical arches whose geometric construction corresponds to a polycentric curve.. France was the country where this theories developed considerably and where they were largely adopted in architecture and engineering works, above all in the construction of bridges.\"