Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Joseph Moxon and Mechanick Exercises
Joseph Moxon (1627-91) author and fluent in Dutch, Latin, French and
German, was one of England's ablest mathematicians, a friend of some
of England's greatest seventeenth-century scientists such as Robert Boyle,
Edmund Halley and Robert Hooke and a fellow member of the Royal Society.
For those researching the historical development of English brickwork, and
in particular gauged brickwork, Moxon's exercise on
The Art of Bricklayers Work
,
first published in 1700, provides essential reading. It offers a powerful 'snapshot'
of craft skills and knowledge at the close of the post-Restoration period and the
dawn of the Georgian period.
Benno M. Forman in his introduction to the facsimile of Moxon's 1703 edi-
tion of
Mechanick Exercises
states (Montgomery, 1970, ix-x):
Historically it stands as an iconoclastic work that broke for all time the medieval
patterns that had long impeded the progress of the crafts. Moxon's MECHANICK
EXERCISES forecast the direction of England's economic development for the
next two centuries.
Of particular interest, Forman ruminates why, given the Great Fire of 1666,
Joseph Moxon did not produce his treatise on the bricklayer's art earlier when
it would have been in huge demand as the city was re-built in brick. Forman
(Montgomery, 1970, xviii-xix) argues that there is a stylistic change in the writ-
ing from the earlier publications and as Joseph Moxon had died in 1691, this
was in fact the work of his son James; hence the commercial decision to market
the work as by 'J. Moxon'.
The mention of Venturus Mandey as assisting (Montgomery, 1970, xix) indeed
possibly co-authoring with James Moxon is also of significance as to why Moxon's
work on bricklaying is both later and different in its style. Venturus Mandey
(1645-1701), was a city master bricklayer in great demand in the years following
the Fire.
The bricklayer, Venturus Mandey…seems to be the Venturus Mandey who pro-
duced a book with Joseph Moxon as joint author. If so, Moxon probably got his
information regarding bricklayers' work from Mandey. (Lloyd, 1925, 77)
Mandey, from the parish of St. Giles in the Fields, London, was possibly
apprenticed to his father, Michael Mandey, becoming Bricklayer to the Society
of Lincoln's Inn from 1667, the year following the Great Fire, until his death
in 1701. He is also known to have worked elsewhere in the city and (Smith,
2003, 16-19) through his work as a measurer, and several topics, including
'Mellificium Mensionis: or The Marrow of Measuring' (1682), mathematics,
science, medicine and even theology, he was indeed an exceptional bricklayer.
