If you are involved in watch repair or making, you may forever be mistyping "Bergeon" (a Swiss materials house) for "Bergeron," and vice versa. The two are unrelated.
Bergeron's book is arguably the most important work on ornamental turning of the 18th and early 19th centuries. In the past it has been difficult to obtain, but digital versions of both original editions (with plates) are now freely available online. An imperfect translation into English of the first volume was done in the 19th century and is now online. An excellent modern translation by Soulsby et al. of the second volume has now been published as a physical printed book. No ornamental turner - indeed, no student of machine tools - should be without it.
"Bergeron" was a kind of a pseudonym, but not a fictitious name. Michael Wright, in his article "Bergeron on Flute-Making" in The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 29 (May, 1976): 26-34 says:
"The first edition of Manuel du Tourneur by L.-E. Bergeron was published in two volumes, in 1792 and 1796 respectively. The second edition, also in two volumes, appeared in 1816, 'revised, corrected, and considerably enlarged' by P. Hamelin-Bergeron, who describes L.-E. Bergeron as his father-in-law or step-father. In fact, both names were pseudonyms for Louis-Georges-Isaac Salivet, an eminent lawyer." (p. 26)
Abell, Leggat, & Ogden (in A Bibliography of The Art of Turning) assert that a Louis-Eloy Bergeron actually existed and was a friend of the true author (Salivet) who lent his name to the publication. They say the same, essentially, of Pierre Hamelin-Bergeron, son-in-law to Louis-Eloy Bergeron.
Ornamental Turning has been the pastime of kings. Perhaps 1792 was not an opportune time to be publishing a book on such things in Paris under one's own name.
Note: The digitizations of the Getty copies have been done at fairly high resolution. But the PDF files resulting from these are visibly distorted by multiple generations of lossy image compression. This is fine for ordinary reading, but not for detailed use of the Plates. If you need better-quality images, go to the original digitizations as presented at The Internet Archive and download the "_orig_jp2.tar" files. Unpack these for first-generation JP2 format versions of the digitizations; these are the best available.
First Edition (1792), Vol. I (Getty)
Bergeron, Louis-Eloy [pseud. Louis-George-Issac Salivet]. Manuel du Tourneur. Tome Premier. Paris: Bergeron, 1792. [Complete with Plates.]
Digitized by the Internet Archive under sponsorship from the Getty Research Institute from the Getty copy. Available online at The Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/manueldutourneur01berg. The icon at left links to a local copy of the PDF from this digitization.
First Edition (1792), Vol. II (Getty)
Bergeron, Louis-Eloy [pseud. Louis-George-Issac Salivet]. Manuel du Tourneur. Tome Premier. Paris: Bergeron, 1796. [Complete with Plates.]
Digitized by the Internet Archive under sponsorship from the Getty Research Institute from the Getty copy. Available online at The Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/manueldutourneur02berg. The icon at left links to a local copy of the PDF from this digitization.
Note: All of the Google scans, especially those of the plates, are frustratingly poor. For better images see the Getty or e-rara/ETH-Zürich digitizations (and, as above, for the Getty digitization the best images are the first-generation JP2 versions in the "*_orig_jp2.tar" file at the Internet Archive).
Second Edition (1816), Vol. I (Getty)
Bergeron, L.-E. and P. Hamelin-Bergeron. Manuel du Tourneur. Tome Premier. Paris: Hamelin-Bergeron, 1816. (Printed by J.-M. Eberhart.)
Digitized by the Internet Archive under sponsorship from the Getty Research Institute from the Getty copy. Available online at The Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/manueldutourneur01berg_0.
Second Edition (1816), Vol. I (e-rara)
Bergeron, L.-E. and P. Hamelin-Bergeron. Manuel du Tourneur. Tome Premier. Paris: Hamelin-Bergeron, 1816. (Printed by J.-M. Eberhart.)
Digitized by the ETH-Bibliothek Zürich and available online in their "e-rara" digital library: http://doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-9982.
Second Edition (1816), Vol. I (Google, Ghent)
Bergeron, L.-E. and P. Hamelin-Bergeron. Manuel du Tourneur. Tome Premier. Paris: Hamelin-Bergeron, 1816. (Printed by J.-M. Eberhart.)
This volume has been digitized by Google Books from the copy at Ghent: http://google.com/books?id=UigPAAAAQAAJ.
Second Edition (1816), Vol. I (Google, Lausanne)
Bergeron, L.-E. and P. Hamelin-Bergeron. Manuel du Tourneur. Tome Premier. Paris: Hamelin-Bergeron, 1816. (Printed by J.-M. Eberhart.)
This volume has been digitized by Google Books from the copy at Lausanne: http://google.com/books?id=bfI0AAAAQAAJ.
Second Edition (1816), Vol. II (Getty)
Bergeron, L.-E. and P. Hamelin-Bergeron. Manuel du Tourneur. Tome Premier. Paris: Hamelin-Bergeron, 1816. (Printed by J.-M. Eberhart.)
Digitized by the Internet Archive under sponsorship from the Getty Research Institute from the Getty copy. Available online at The Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/manueldutourneur02berg_0.
Second Edition (1816), Vol. II (e-rara)
Bergeron, L.-E. and P. Hamelin-Bergeron. Manuel du Tourneur. Tome Premier. Paris: Hamelin-Bergeron, 1816. (Printed by J.-M. Eberhart.)
Digitized by the ETH-Bibliothek Zürich and available online in their "e-rara" digital library: http://doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-9982.
Second Edition (1816), Vol. II (Gallica)
Bergeron, L.-E. and P. Hamelin-Bergeron. Manuel du Tourneur. Tome Premier. Paris: Hamelin-Bergeron, 1816. (Printed by J.-M. Eberhart.)
Digitized by the Biblliothèque nationale de France and available online on their Gallica digital library: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k54700605 It is licensed for noncommercial use only. The icon at left links to a local PDF copy of this digitization.
Second Edition (1816), Vol. II (Google, Ghent)
Bergeron, L.-E. and P. Hamelin-Bergeron. Manuel du Tourneur. Tome Second. Paris: Hamelin-Bergeron, 1816. (Printed by J.-M. Eberhart.)
This volume has been digitized by Google Books from the copy at Ghent: http://google.com/books?id=aygPAAAAQAAJ.
Second Edition (1816), Vol. II (Google, Lausanne)
Bergeron, L.-E. and P. Hamelin-Bergeron. Manuel du Tourneur. Tome Second. Paris: Hamelin-Bergeron, 1816. (Printed by J.-M. Eberhart.)
This volume has been digitized by Google Books from the copy at Lausanne: http://google.com/books?id=gxA1AAAAQAAJ.
Second Edition (1816), Atlas (Getty)
The plates for the 1816 second edition were published in a separate volume, Atlas ou Manual du Tourneur (Paris: Hamelin Bergeron, 1816).
At the present time (July 2018) there is no digitization of the Getty Research Institute's copy of the Atlas online at the Internet Archive.
Second Edition (1816), Atlas (e-rara)
Bergeron, L.-E. and P. Hamelin-Bergeron. Manuel du Tourneur. Tome Premier. Paris: Hamelin-Bergeron, 1816. (Printed by J.-M. Eberhart.)
Digitized by the ETH-Bibliothek Zürich and available online in their "e-rara" digital library: http://doi.org/10.3931/e-rara-9982.
Second Edition (1816), Atlas (Google, Ghent)
The plates for the 1816 second edition were published in a separate volume, Atlas ou Manual du Tourneur (Paris: Hamelin Bergeron, 1816).
This volume has been digitized by Google Books from the copy at Ghent: http://google.com/books?id=cVZAAAAAcAAJ.
Second Edition (1816), Atlas (Google, Lausanne)
The plates for the 1816 second edition were published in a separate volume, Atlas ou Manual du Tourneur (Paris: Hamelin Bergeron, 1816).
This volume has been digitized by Google Books from the copy at Lausanne: http://google.com/books?id=hhY1AAAAQAAJ.
1877 Translation of Vol. I
Bergeron, L. E., trans. D.A.A. [David Alfred Aird] The Turner's Manual. London: F. Offen, 1877.
This is a translation into English by David Alfred Aird of Volume I of Bergeron. I have not yet spent the time to determine whether Aird's source was the first or second edition of Bergeron.
This volume has been scanned by Google Books from the Bodleian Library copy: http://google.com/books?id=NzYAAAAAQAAJ. The quality of this scan is often poor, and it is not entirely legible. The icon above left links to a local copy of the Google Books PDF.
In the 2001 timeframe, a comb-bound photocopy of this 1877 edition was available from Steve Johnson, of Redmond, Washington. It also included various excerpts (without bibliographic citation) by Evans on the Spherical Slide Rest. Although this Johnson reprint was a photocopy, the quality of the reproduction (especially the plates) is significantly better than the Google Books digitization.
As of 2012 there are several "print-on-demand" versions of this edition available. Although I have not examined any of them, I presume that they are simply printouts of the Google Books digitization.
Bergeron has been partially re-issued in an edition in English edited by Jeremy Soulsby for the Society of Ornamental Turners. This edition integrates material translated by several people: David Alfred Aird and James Lukin (in the 19th century), "an anonymous translater in the 1840s," Paul Ferraglio (in the 1970s), Violet Clark and John Ferguson, Michael Wright (of the Science Museum), and the editor himself. It is based on the 1816 second edition, with reference when necessary to the first edition. The volume of plates to accompany it is very well produced. It is a great achievement, and clearly it is the edition to have.
Soulsby Translation of Vol. I
A translation by Soulsby for the S.O.T. of Volume I of Bergeron is in preparation.
Soulsby Edition of 2ed. Vol. II (2010)
Soulsby, Jeremy, ed. Bergeron. Manuel du Tourneur (The Turner's Manual, Volume II) (UK: The Society of Ornamental Turners, 2010). This book includes only the text; the Plates were published in a separate book (see below).
This book is available directly from the S.O.T. It does not have an ISBN.
Plates for Soulsby Edition of 2ed. Vol. II (2010)
Soulsby, Jeremy, Ed. Manuel du Tourneur (The Turner's Manual, Volume II): Volume of Plates. (UK: The Society of Ornamental Turners, 2010). This is the volume of Plates to accompany the Soulsby/S.O.T. edition of Volume II of Bergeron (see above). It is equivalent to the Atlas ou Manuel du Tourneur (1816), but unlike the Google Books scans of that volume (see below), it is beautifully produced.
This book is available directly from the S.O.T. It does not have an ISBN.
The texts and images from Getty digitizations reprinted and/or extracted-from here are in the public domain. As used here they remain in the public domain.
The texts and images from e-rara / ETH-Zürich reprinted and/or extracted-from here are in the public domain (and marked with the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark). As used here they remain in the public domain.
The texts and images from Google Books reprinted and/or extracted-from here are in the public domain. As used here they remain in the public domain.
The texts and images from Gallica reprinted here are licensed for noncommercial use only.
All portions of this document not noted otherwise are Copyright © 2012, 2018 by David M. MacMillan.
Circuitous Root is a Registered Trademark of David M. MacMillan.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons "Attribution - ShareAlike" license, version 4.0 International. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ for its terms.
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