Émiland Gauthey

Émiland Marie Gauthey ( in Chalon-sur-Saône – in Paris) was a French mathematician, civil engineer and architect. As an engineer for the Estates of Burgundy (États de Bourgogne), he was the creator of a great deal of the region's civil infrastructure, such as the Canal du Centre between Digoin and Chalon-sur-Saône (1784–1793), bridges including those at Navilly (1782–1790) and Gueugnon (1784–1787), and buildings such as the Eglise Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul ("Church of St Peter and St Paul") at Givry (1772 – 1791) and the theatre at Chalon-sur-Saône. Gauthey became Chief Engineer of the États de Bourgogne in 1782, on the death of his predecessor and close collaborator, Thomas Dumorey. After the French Revolution, he held several important posts in the Haute administration des Ponts-et Chaussées ("High Commission for Bridges and [High]ways") in Paris. He was awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1804 on its creation by Napoleon Bonaparte. From 1805 until his death, he was the highest-ranked engineer in France. Émiland Marie Gauthey was born at Chalon-sur-Saône on 3 December 1732 into a provincial petty bourgeois family. His father, Pierre Gauthey, was the local doctor: and his mother, Louise (or Louyse) née was born at Chagny on 27 August 1700 as the dauter of Emiland Lafouge, a company lawyer and Official Receiver for the salt store in Toulon-sur-Arroux. From 1740 to 1748, he studied with brilliance at the Jesuit college in Chalon. At the age of sixteen, after his father died, he continued his studies at Versailles under the auspices of an uncle who was Professor of Mathematics at the École des pages du roi (School for Royal Pages). He continued his education under the architect Gabriel Dumont before entering the École royale des ponts et chaussées (which became the École nationale des ponts et chaussées, literally "National School of Bridges and [High]Ways"), which had been newly created and was under the direction of the notable engineer Jean-Rodolphe Perronet. He met with the Dumont architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot, and started a lifelong friendship.