Abstract: In 1799 the Institute of France set as an essay, the history of construction from the earliest times. Jean Rondelet won the prize, in July 1808, with a 90 page essay, yet unpublished, that would seem to be the first attempt to write a history of construction. He investigated timber construction, stone building techniques, then building with bricks, sun-dried and kiln-dried, from Babylon onwards, through to the churches of Constantinople and Ravenna.
