16TH CENTURY JAQUES BESSON AND HIS "ART AND SCIENCE OF FINDING SUBSURFACE WATER", A PRECURSOR TO THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRENCH HYDROLOGY?

“The Art And Science Of Finding The Waters And Springs Hidden Below The Earth, Other Than By The Vulgar Means Of Peasants And Architects”, by Jaques Besson from the Dauphiné, Mathematician, published in 1569 in Orleans, France, is one of the earliest treatises exclusively given to questions of groundwater and the hydrologic cycle. It is extremely rare, only a handful of copies exist. Jaques Besson at the time of publication was a professor of mathematics at the University of Orleans. His publication record spans the years between 1559 and 1578 and covers theoretical and practical works on mathematics and engineering. This presentation is to publicize an under represented important text, and review it in the context of French history of hydrological sciences. The work is divided into three parts or books, the firs dealing with general questions of the origin of water, the second about where groundwater accumulates and flows, and the third about its quality. This structure and content are quite modern, but the originality of the work is that Besson breaks with tradition and uses new approaches less dependent on previous works by the ancient philosophers. He must have introduced his own observations, and he formulates modern ideas about the hydrologic cycle (a hundred years before Perrault) and the accumulation and movement of groundwater. The book poses a number of intriguing questions: why is he so hard on peasants and architects? What sources did he have: Vitruvius, Alberti, Agricola? what were his relations with Palissy?, and what influence did he have on Claude Perrault's work? Was Besson part of initiating a golden age of hydrology in France in the 17,18, and19th centuries culminating in the works of Boussinesq, Dupuit and Darcy? Why this focused interest in hydrology starting in Medieval France? At that time the kingdom's wealth derived mainly from agriculture, viniculture and forest resources and related commerce, all dependent on the availability of water. This is in stark contrast to Central Europe where extraction of base and precious metals was the principal generator of wealth giving rise to an extensive literature on mining and metallurgy.