SUMMARY

BACCRABÈRE Georges, IId and Ist Centuries BC Funerary Pits in the Empalot District of Toulouse

On the occasion of some ground works, fifteen funerary pits and two graves were uncovered, in addition to a large corpus previously identified in Toulouse. According to the inventory of the material contained in these cavities, it was possible to date them from the Ild and Ist centuries BC. Questions on funerary practice which still remain difficult to understand are open by these findings.

POUSTHOMIS-DALLE Nelly, Saint-Jean de Catus (Lot - France). Cloister and its Decoration : Recent Findings

Multiple informations were brought about by a rescue digging in the St-Jean de Catus priory during the year 1994. The present paper only deals with new information on the cloister destroyed during the Hundred Years war. An exceptional stone corpus allowed a graphic restoration of the cloister eastern arcades. The interest of this discovery not only lies in the exceptional quality of these carvings but also in the possibility to integrate them in the production of a workshop which operated for the Catus chapter meeting room. The cloister rich and various décoration is a witness to the presence at Catus of artists contemporary of the great tolosan and quercynian building sites during the years 1110- 1150 ; it is enriching out knowledge of the great romanesque languedocien sculpture, providing evidence of the " personal " manner which stimulated its expansion.

SCELLÈS Maurice, Cahors : The City and its Civilian Architecture during XIIth, XIIIth and XIVth Centuries

A middle-size rown, Cahors experienced during XIlth-XIVth centuries an important rise which most visible witness is the building of two additional bridges. The consular urban expansion policy is still obvious from the place development in the ancient heart of the City wich also was the political, economic and residential area. Some thirty " romanesque " houses are providing us with a chronology of this building activity. Three monographs illustrate the description of wealthy résidences during XIIIth-XIVth centuries. Evolution of the dwellings is characterized by a better confort and a change in the scenery which adopted shapes of the french gothic period.

JULIEN Pascal, "Notre-Dame de Bonnes-Nouvelles" a Lady-Chapel in the Cloister of Saint-Sernin Abbey Church

The cloister of St-Sernin abbey church housed a very ancient chapel dedicated to "Notre-Dame de Bonnes-Nouvelles" the place where pregnant women used to pray for a happy birth to come. In 1642, a wealthy silk trader had this chapel built again and decorated by some of the best tolosan artists, such as the painter Hilaire Pader. The only remains of this scenery are two statues ordered to the sculptor Gervais Drouet, the first one kept at the "Musée des Augustins" in Toulouse, the second in St-Etienne cathédral to which it was then gifted.

BERTRAND Pascal, The Tapestry Trading in the XVIth Century : Artistic Exchanges between Toulouse, Aubusson and the Flanders

In the light of new documents (one of which allowing identification of Jean Péchaut as the weaver which, in the years 1532-1533, worked out the tapestry hangings of the St-Etienne story in Toulouse Cathedral), this paper intends to come back on the use of tapestry in Toulouse during the XVIth century. Tropics are centered on the customers, the Church essentially, and on the tapestry makers, whether flemish, Aubusson or Toulouse dwellers, taking care to distinguish weavers from traders, a somewhat difficult task.

WATIN-GRANI)CHAMP Dominique and CRANGA Yves, The Castle of Massuguiès in Masnau-Massuguiès : a castle into its Scenery

The Masnau-Massuguiès castle, located in the "département du Tarn", was built again from 1606 to 1620 by its new landlord, Jean de Lacger, a rich protestant member of the Castres Parliament. Keeping the defence structure of the once Rabastens-family belonging old XIVth century castel, a new design and a sober décoration endowed the new building with a glamour adapted to the castrese higher class fashion. In a studying office, walls are still covered with an astounding grisaille décoration showing a scenery of anecdotes seeming to recall Jacques de Lacger's thrilling life : he was an incredible character, very little endowed with the restrained behaviour of his family.

HENG Michèle, John Claude Nattes'Pyrenean Travelling (April 26th to July 29th 1822)

The Lourdes Pyrenean Museum keeps two unpublished drawing books due to the bristih drawer and topograph John Claude Nattes (1765 ?-1822) and containing three hundred precisely dated drawings. These note-books, aimed to be later published were the fruit of a joumey to the pyrenéan hot springs, since Nattes took the waters at Bagnères-de-Bigorre and next at Cauterets. Beyond the interest of his work for history of balneology, Nattes got attached to draw the monuments and the dwellings of the pyreneans "Piemont". For an archaeologist, his testimony is priceless according to its early date. However, it is pertinent to discuss whether it is reliable. Did he leave an inventory of fixtures or did bc submit to colorful effects and to the ruin illness ?

NAYROLLES Jean, Neo-Romanesque Churches in Toulouse Diocese

Although it was often concealed by the romantic infatuation for gothic style, the rediscovery of romanesque art still forms an important phenomenon for XIXth century culture and art. It bas been raising both a new object of archaeological knowledge, stakes of a mighty enlargment of the monument patrimony and a source of never-ending inspiration within the frame of architectural eclectism which prevailed between 1830 and 1900. Any sophisticated spéculation on romanesque art might then be read through a neo-romanesque monument production which, on the other hand, is witnessing a concern for a building logic which cannot bc identified to the neo-gothic rationalism alone. The Toulouse diocese, in spite of a relative poomess during last century, is offering a most attractive sample of this neo-romanesque variety.

MONTAGNE Bernard o.p., The fate of the "Jacobins" Convent of Toulouse, as bargained between the City and the Dominicans

In 1870, the Tolosan Domincans were prepared to acquire the convent of the Jacobins in Toulouse that, after buying it back fom the Franch State, the City of Toulouse might accept to sell them in the view of opening again the church to cult and to bring back into it the St-Thomas-of-Aquin relics. Therefore, the event achieved in 1974, although without the Dominicans, for the 7th centenary of St-Thomas-of-Aquin death, might have occured a century earlier. This paper whollyh relates the bargaining troughout its various stages sinces 1868.

Academic Year Bulletin 1994-1995

Reports of The Society sessions are accounting for its different activities, particularly reproducing the comments following the "Mémoires" volumes. Recent information on entrent archaelogical excavations, restaurations and micellaneous discoveries in Toulouse, Cahors or Agen... vill be available.