In 1973, in Moscow, Professor Jean Kerisel delivered a special opening lecture to the 8th International Conference of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering (Kerisel, 1973). It was devoted to celebrating Charles-Augustin Coulomb’s work on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the publication of the famousEssai sur une application des règles de Maximis et de Minimis à quelques Problèmes de Statique relatifs à l’Architecture(Coulomb, 1773). This Memoir stands as a most popular landmark text in civil and construction engineering and an inescapable reference in theoretical soil mechanics and geotechnical engineering textbooks. It has been the subject of a great many valuable analyses by distinguished scholars dealing either with soil mechanics (e.g., Schofield, 1998) or the stability of vaults, or both topics (e.g., Heyman, 1972). The present contribution, which takes advantage of the approaching 250th anniversary of the Essai, only intends to sketch out, recall and comment some seminal concepts introduced and formalised by Coulomb that are still retained in theoretical soil mechanics.