Un métier d'art sur le chantier de Notre-Dame: le serrurier d'art, une reconstruction terminologique

The variety of crafts on the Notre-Dame building site, and especially the artistic crafts, provides an opportunity to analyse the specific terminology used by these activities, during the various phases of work, according to the different processes and tools. The focus is on the artistic locksmithing, with the intention of describing a lively network of terminology and verifying its diachronic evolution over time, according to the changes that have occurred in this trade. This diachronic procedure permits to verify the impact that this approach can have on terminological studies. This analysis aims to illustrate three directions in the research: the creation of the craft’s terminology, the richness of the documentation sources, and its descriptive systematisation. The French lexicographical contribution is examined over the centuries before moving on to an analysis of the documentation on this craft in the 18th and 19th centuries up to the present day. The history of locksmithing terms makes it possible to retrace the history of a discipline, of a technique: these terms are the privileged witnesses of an era, of its achievements and its know-how.