The French architect Philibert de l'Orme (ca. 1510-1570), or Delorme, established on French soil true classical standards in architecture.

Philibert de l'Orme was born in Lyons, the son of a master mason. He went to Rome about 1533 to measure and excavate ancient Roman about buildings. In the humanist circle he frequented, he met Cardinal Jean du Bellay and François Rabelais, the cardinal's secretary, who became his friend. l'Orme returned to Lyons in 1536, where he built the house of Antoine Bullioud.

Du Bellay called l'Orme to Paris in 1540 to design his château at St-Maur-lès-Foussés, of which l'Orme boasted that it was the first building in France "to show how the proportions and measures of architecture should be observed." This single-story structure, reminiscent of Giulio Romano's Palazzo del Tè in Mantua, was the first building in France to have a horseshoe...