Étienne-Louis Boullée was a visionary French neoclassical architect whose work greatly influenced contemporary architects.

Jacques-François Blondel was an 18th-century French architect and teacher. After running his own highly successful school of architecture for many years, he was appointed Professor of Architecture at the Académie Royale d'Architecture in 1762, and his Cours d'architecture largely superseded a similarly titled book published in 1675 by his famous namesake, François Blondel, who had occupied the same post in the late 17th century.