Adam de Craponne
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Adam de Craponne (; 1526–1576) was a French engineer. He built the eponymous Canal de Craponne to irrigate the ''Désert de la
Crau The Crau is the ancient confluence of the Durance and Rhône, and constitutes their vast flat alluvial fan. Agriculture The Crau is composed of two different parts: The dry Crau is in the south, and has been used as pasture from Roman times. Th ...
''. He was poisoned while fortifying Nantes for King Henry III of France during the
French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholics and Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estimates, between two and four mi ...


Early life

De Craponne was born in 1526 in Salon-de-Provence.


Career

After his studies, he went to the court of
Henry II of France Henry II (french: Henri II; 31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I and Duchess Claude of Brittany, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder bro ...
and became an engineer, officer in charge of fortifications. In 1552, he reinforced and reorganised the defences of
Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...
, against Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.( :fr:) In 1554, a decree of the Parliament of Provence (located in Aix-en-Provence), conferred on him the right to divert the waters of the river Durance to Salon-de-Provence, and from there to the sea. Between 1557 and 1558, he built the '' Canal de Craponne'' which enabled irrigation of the Désert de la
Crau The Crau is the ancient confluence of the Durance and Rhône, and constitutes their vast flat alluvial fan. Agriculture The Crau is composed of two different parts: The dry Crau is in the south, and has been used as pasture from Roman times. Th ...
with water coming from the Durance. De Craponne personally funded the project, with the help of private partners, such as
Nostradamus Michel de Nostredame (December 1503 – July 1566), usually Latinised as Nostradamus, was a French astrologer, apothecary, physician, and reputed seer, who is best known for his book '' Les Prophéties'' (published in 1555), a collection ...
, the reputed
seer In the United States, the efficiency of air conditioners is often rated by the seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) which is defined by the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, a trade association, in its 2008 standard AHR ...
who, along with his wife Anne Ponsard, acquired a one-thirteenth share in the canal project. (See Canal de Craponne#Contract law for the unforeseen legal and financial consequences over the ensuing 458 years.) In 1571, he was hired by the municipality of Les Mées, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence to restore the water intake of an irrigation canal.Jean Nicod
La poursuite de l'aménagement de la Durance : la chute d'Oraison
''Méditerranée'', 1960. pp 92.


Death

He died of poisoning in Nantes on December 20, 1576, while working for King Henry III of France. The country was plagued by the turmoil of the
Wars of Religion A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war ( la, sanctum bellum), is a war which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent to wh ...
, and Henry's authority was undermined by foreign powers: the Catholic League, the Protestant
Huguenots The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
and the Malcontents. De Craponne's grand-nephew,
Seigneur ''Seigneur'' is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. A seigneur refers to the person or collective who owned a ''seigneurie'' (or ...
(Lord) Paul de Grignan, ( :it: De Grignan) wrote:Paul de Grignan, Seigneur de Hauteville and :fr: Châteauneuf-lès-Moustiers, son of Jean de Grignan and of Jeanne de Craponne, niece and heiress of Adam de Craponne.
''“In the year 1576, 'ledict' Adam de Craponne died of illness in Nantes, Brittany, employed by King Henry III of France to fortify the city, where he was believed to have been poisoned by envious Italian workers, ... He died within 24 hours and was buried in the l'église Notre-Dame”.''Marylène Soma Bonfillon, ''Le canal de Craponne, un exemple de maîtrise de l'eau en Provence occidentale 1554-1954'', Publications de l'Université de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, 2004, , According to some sources, he was poisoned by engineers envious of his success.Notre Provence, Adam de Craponne, Ingrnieur Provencal, 1526-1576.
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Contract Law

Adam de Craponne was the unwitting, underlying cause of a notorious case in French contract law that still reverberates 450 years after his death. The original Canal de Craponne investors formally undertook to maintain the canal against a payment of three
French sol The sol, later called a sou, is the name of a number of different coins, for accounting or payment, dating from Antiquity to today. The name is derived from the solidus. Its longevity of use anchored it in many expressions of the French language. ...
s for every two hectares irrigated by the farmers. Slowly this payment became derisory and out of proportion to the cost of maintenance, so the heirs of Adam de Craponne were granted an increase by the lower court. But in 1876 the farmers sought legal review and the decision of the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence was quashed.University_of_Texas,_Foreign_Law_Translations,_D._1876._1._193_Case_De_Gallifet_v._Commune_de_Pélissanne
,_06_March_1876,_Copyright:_Professor_B._S._Markesinis.html" ;"title="Pélissanne">University of Texas, Foreign Law Translations, D. 1876. 1. 193 Case De Gallifet v. Commune de Pélissanne
, 06 March 1876, Copyright: Professor B. S. Markesinis">Pélissanne">University of Texas, Foreign Law Translations, D. 1876. 1. 193 Case De Gallifet v. Commune de Pélissanne
, 06 March 1876, Copyright: Professor B. S. Markesinis/ref> After more than a century of further academic debate, the reform of French contract law (10 February 2016) overruled the Cour de cassation’s infamous decision on Canal de Craponne, according to which even a 300-year-old contract could not be modified to accommodate a change of circumstances that had rendered performance significantly more onerous for one of the parties.University of Oxford, Introducing imprévision into French contract law – A paradigm shift in comparative perspective
/ref>


See also

* :fr: Canal de Craponne (arrêt) - one of the largest judgements of the Court of Cassation.


References

*


External links


Adam de Craponne, ''Smithsonian Institutions Libraries''Discover the life of Adam de Craponne Notreprovence.fr (english)
1526 births 1576 deaths People from Salon-de-Provence {{France-engineer-stub