Pierres Vedel: A Review of Hypotheses About His Birthplace

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Determining the exact birthplace of Pierres Vedel has often been a neglected issue, even among those who have studied his biography in some depth. At the same time, it remains one of the most controversial aspects due to the scarcity and fragmentation of reliable documentary sources.

The difficulty increases when we consider that, in the 16th century, France’s internal and external borders and administrative divisions were significantly different from those of today. From its early history, France was territorially organized into regions, which, prior to the French Revolution, were subdivided into provinces. Beginning in 1789, the revolutionary government replaced these provinces with the current departments, further divided into cantons and communes, as well as villages and hamlets, some of which still exist today.

Around 1789, the French revolutionary government reorganized the country into territorial divisions known as departments. Each department is divided into cantons, each with its own administrative center, and these cantons are further subdivided into communes. Surrounding the communes, there are often villages and hamlets as well.

Over time, several theories have been proposed regarding the birthplace of Pierres Vedel, which can be grouped as follows:

• According to the documentation from a legal proceeding initiated on May 29, 1608, at the request of Fray Pedro de Vedel—aimed at clarifying aspects of his father’s life—there are doubts about Vedel’s birthplace. The original records, once held in the Diocesan Archive of Albarracín, have since disappeared, and the available transcriptions offer differing interpretations:

  • The Piarist scholar Joaquín Traggia (1748–1813) transcribed the place name as BOBUES. In 1962, Santiago Sebastián interpreted it as Beauvais (the current capital of the department of Oise, on the border between Picardy and the Pays de Bray), which explains why Vedel is sometimes referred to as "the Picard".

  • In 1958, César Tomás Laguía transcribed the name as USBUES, which was interpreted in 2006 by Javier Fernández as Uzès (a small town in the Eure Valley, in eastern Languedoc, France). According to Fernández, the relevant passage reads:
    "... y naturales el dicho mase Pierres Vedel de Usbues del reyno de Francia”
    ("... and native the said master Pierres Vedel of Usbues, from the Kingdom of France").

• R. J. Mélida, in his 1903 edition of Discursos de medallas y antigüedades que compuso el muy ilustre D. Martín de Gurrea y Aragón, cites that when referring to Vedel, Martín de Gurrea (1526–1581) wrote: "... Pierres, a Burgundian architect, who in his time...", suggesting an origin in Burgundy.

• The genealogist Michel A. Rateau, along with data from the INSEE (French National Institute of Statistics), indicates that the surname Vedel has historically been most common in the Occitan departments of Gard and Tarn, further supporting the theory of an Occitan origin.

• Another line of thought proposes that Vedel may have been born in the Béarn, based on its proximity to Spain and the possibility that he entered the Iberian Peninsula via the Roncesvalles Pass, a logical access route at the time.

In addition to these theories, genealogical records and references allow for a partial reconstruction of the Vedel family lineage in Languedoc, providing a well-supported hypothesis about Pierres Vedel’s origins—one that aligns with other known biographical data.

The Vedel family, of ancient nobility, is believed to originate from Languedoc, where it is documented as early as the 13th century. The name appears in old Latin records under various forms: Vedellus, Vedelli, Vitulus, and Vituli. For references prior to the 13th century, see E. Pascallet’s Notice biographique sur M. le lieutenant général Comte de Vedel précédée d’un historique sur la maison de Vedel (Paris, 1844).

The Vedel family was a consular family that, from the 13th century until the late 16th century, held municipal offices in the city of Nîmes. They rose to the nobility through the possession of noble fiefdoms and distinguished service in military posts. From 1547, family members are recorded as serving as lieutenants and captains, followed by two lieutenant colonels prior to the French Revolution, and later a divisional general during the First Empire.

According to family tradition, the Vedels came from Avignon, later settling in the diocese of Nîmes, where they held a fief and seigneurial rights in Aspères, near Sommières, within the Barony of Montredon.

An original manuscript housed in the Archives of the College of Heraldry, from the cabinet of La Chesnaye des Bois, states that the family, which split into two branches at the end of the 16th century, descends from two ancestors who, around the year 1200, already held the highest consular offices in Nîmes.

Further details of this genealogy can be found in the historical records of the city of Nîmes and in a legal memorandum submitted in Toulouse by Unie Françoise de Vedel, wife of Messire de Vedel, an infantry lieutenant colonel in 1785.

The proximity of the Roman Pont du Gard—often considered a precursor to Los Arcos of Teruel due to its architectural similarities, and which Vedel is believed to have known—also supports the theory that Uzès, a town near Nîmes in the present-day department of Gard, may have been his birthplace.

A Hypothesis with Symbolic Weight

The proximity of Uzès to the Pont du Gard—a Roman aqueduct often compared to the Arcos de Teruel, and which Vedel likely knew—strengthens the hypothesis that this town in the department of Gard may have been his birthplace. Moreover, the area offers historical, geographical, and symbolic coherence with the life and professional trajectory of the architect.