SUMMARY

 

Georges BACCRABÈRE, A Gallo-roman ditch south of the Rue des Pénitents-Blancs (Saint-Georges quarter) in Toulouse

During works carried out in March, 1973, J.-P. Claria was able to examine a trench, where he gathered an ensemble of Roman remains, from the Early to the Late Empire.
             The ceramics of the Early Empire included some stamped ware (a bowl, a pot, remnants of mortars and a plate), and a piece of a disk lamp, a pitcher and a fragment of a money box. The bottom of a basin, a piece of another plate, a large dish, a cup and remnants of pots, cruets and amphorae represent the Late Empire.
             It appears that the Saint-Georges quarter was used at the time as a dump inside the city walls.

 

Olivier TESTARD, The Miégeville Gate in the church of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse: a proposed iconographic analysis

Such commonly-used themes as simony, nicolaïtism and heresy are not sufficient to fully explain the significance of this gate, nor to understand the role of its program of decoration as it was intended to be presented to the public. Methodic consideration of the potential meaning of each figure, and comparison with similar portals in the region, such as Moissac, have allowed us to reconstitute the integral significance of the work, and to evoke the rules which underlay the creation of such a program. Counterparts can be found in the practice of sermons and the use of mnemonics. The tympanum of the Ascension is surrounded by a reflection on the nature of the Church, promoting the Gregorian reform and the institution of canons.

 

Christophe BALAGNA, Rediscovering an important medieval edifice in central Gascony: the former abbey of La Case-Dieu (Gers) 

The former Premonstrensian abbey of La Case-Dieu was one of the principal monastic communities in Gascony in the Middle Ages. In spite of its obscure history, and the complete disappearance of the religious buildings, it is now possible, thanks to the rediscovery of sculptural elements scattered throughout the region, to better appreciate the architecture and décor of the abbey church and of the medieval cloister. It now appears that the church was undoubtedly built in the second half of the twelfth century and the first years of the thirteenth century, modeled on Cistercian abbeys in Gascony, for example Flaran. As for the cloister, the few remaining bases and capitals point to construction at the end of the thirteenth century, and to the beginning of the following century, reflecting as they do the gothic style becoming common throughout the south of  France.

Adeline BÉA, The parish church of Notre-Dame de l’Assomption at Fanjeaux: new findings from a late thirteenth-century construction

Although the parish church of Fanjeaux is a securely-dated gothic structure, thanks to the inscription on its foundation stone, study of the contract drawn up prior to its construction has revealed new information. The structural and decorative evolution of the church can be read in the construction’s progress. Dating to the third quarter of the thirteenth century, the church appears to incarnate the meeting point of influences from Haut-Languedoc and from Bas-Languedoc, at the moment when religious architecture was developing its own characteristics. What is more, this study has led to the recognition of the emergence of architectural principles and the movement towards standardization that took place in the first half of the fourteenth century, in the former Bas-Languedoc.

 

Patrice CABAU, Laurent MACÉ, Dominique WATIN-GRANDCHAMP, Two inscriptions in the cloister of the former House of the Hôpital Saint-Jean de Jérusalem in Toulouse (thirteenth century)

In 1997, exploration of an area obscured since the seventeenth century, near the great staircase of the House of the Knights Hospitaler revealed two new tombs along the north wall of the former Saint-Rémi church, bearing unusual inscriptions. The first, near the entry to the church, was engraved on the marble. It bears a summary of an enigmatic donation charter from 1216, recording a gift to the Hospitalers from Pierre Nègre, who appears as the “cordwainer of Saint-Jean”. The second, in the background of a niche, is exceptionally executed in paint on marble. Unfortunately it is in very poor condition. This one bears the epitaph of a knight from a family with close connections to the Order of Saint-Jean, who can be identified with some confidence as that Pierre of Toulouse, vicar of Count Raymond VII from 1237 to 1243, who died between 1251 and 1257.

 

Sandrine CONAN, The Casa Julia in Perpignan : an example of a patrician residence (fourteenth and fifteenth centuries)

Located at 2 rue des Fabriques d’en Nabot, in the historic quarter of the Saint-Jean parish in Perpignan, the Casa Julia today bears the name of a bourgeois family of the town, who owned the dwelling from the nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth centuries. Its construction is attributed to a draper, Joseph Nebot or Nabot, according to a tradition which seems, given the absence of documentary evidence, to be based on local place names.
            Although the medieval portions of the building are part of a vast complex, only completed in the early twentieth century, they can nevertheless be traced. The two main buildings organized around a courtyard, and dominated by a corner tower, present an example of a traditional patrician residence of the Mediterranean region. Serving as the hub, the courtyard retains its upper galleries. On the upper story of the main building, the latter lead to a large room, unusually large, with a painted ceiling which has partially survived. Although of smaller dimensions, like the main structure, the rear building has three levels, the upper being covered by exposed rafters. 

 

François BORDES, A perception of urban space: official entries and general processions in Toulouse from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century

Studying the routes taken by processions or by the entry of important figures in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance allows us to understand the appropriation of public space by the community and its representatives. The different routes taken by the Corpus Domini procession, in particular, shed light on a number of symbolic sites in Toulouse – the Taur church, the basilica of Saint-Sernin and the cathedral of Saint-Étienne – reminders of the town’s early Christian history that appear as signposts of its collective religious identity. Moreover, following the double circumambulation of the Bourg and the City, one can trace a city nearly fossilized in a much earlier configuration, perhaps that of the counts (twelfth century). On the other hand the entry of kings and of high officials took linear routes, crossing the town from one quarter to another, as though to better take possession. The town gates (especially the Arnaud-Bernard gate) marked the beginning, and the former castle of the counts, by then a royal palace, frequently marked the end, or at least a site not to be missed. All of these routes were reminders of the birth of  Toulouse, around its two early cores, which were thus symbolically reunited. Using as they generally did the former cardo maximus of the Roman era, they show moreover the durability of the ancient street system, still very much full of life.

 

Bernard MONTAGNES O. P., Maurice PRIN, The tomb of the Avignonet martyrs in the Jacobins church, Toulouse

In 1690, when the relics of the Dominicans massacred at Avignonet in 1242 were authentified, their three tombs were placed in the chapel dedicated to Saint Hyacinth -formerly to Saint Nicholas - in the sixth bay of the right nave. An early tradition of the convent held that the three tombs were placed there in 1383. The site was the third resting place of the martyrs.
             Following their burial in the Brothers’ choir, that is in the left nave, to the left of the altar, on the Gospel side, the enlargement of the church between 1245 and 1252 forced the relocation of the tombs to the chapel of the sixth bay, that of Saint Erasmus or of the Crucifix. The subsequent construction of the mausoleum of Saint Thomas Aquinas, finished in 1374, practically in front of the Saint-Erasmus chapel, would certainly have eclipsed the devotions dedicated to the martyrs’ relics. In 1383, the decision to move the tombs, from the chapel of Saint Erasmus to the corresponding one of Saint Nicholas in the same bay, raised the status of the blessed martyrs, without diminishing the glory of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
             In the 1860s, reevaluation of the cult of the martyrs of Avignonet drew attention to the archaeological vestiges, to the documentary sources and the relics. Iconography, in particular through the talent of the Dominican painter Jean-Baptiste Besson, was placed in the service of the rites for the blessed martyrs.

 

Georges COSTA, The chapel of Notre-Dame du Rosaire of the Jacobins church in Toulouse, a work of Pierre Levesville

The history of the construction of the church’s main chapel is tied to the cult of the Virgin and to the development of the Rosary. Dedicated from the outset to the Virgin, it was first constructed like the other chapels aligned with the buttresses that enclosed it. It was then called Notre-Dame de Grâces before being definitively designated under the name of Notre-Dame of the chapel or of the Rosary. The fraternity of the Rosary had been established in the convent of  Toulouse in 1492 and the chapel was reconstructed twice because of the evolution of the practice. The first time was in 1527, by the Toulousan master mason, Michel Colin, although only the radiating vault built between the buttresses remains of this work.
             Following the difficult years of the civil wars of the second half of the sixteenth century, the house was reformed by Père Sébastien Michaelis, founder of the “Congrégation réformée occitaine”, led to a return to the rule’s strict observance and gave new impetus to the practice of the Rosary. As early as 1609, there had been discussion about reconstructing the chapel to adapt it to the new devotional observances. However, it was only in 1615 that the architect Pierre Levesville was called in, who submitted plans and directed the construction of the chapel in its current square plan, covered with a surmounted square vault whose covering in shaped brick forms the four-sided dome. Although constructed in the style of the time, the chapel of Notre-Dame du Rosaire is perfectly integrated into the whole of the apse of the Jacobins church.

 

Yves and Marie-Françoise CRANGA, The parc à fabriques of the Château of Pompignan: the art of gardening in the South of  France illustrated.

The constantly growing interest in the art of gardening has led to the discovery or rediscovery of gardens worthy of interest, whether their value is botanical, historical or decorative. The forgotten park of the Château of Pompignan, in the Tarn-and-Garonne department, preserves the marks of an illustrious past, to which its architectural vestiges bear witness. A collection of early nineteenth-century designs allows us to place the parc à fabriques which they represent in the current of new trends in garden design begun in the middle of the eighteenth century. Are they the single-handed product of Jean-Jacques Lefranc de Pompignan, the poet-marquis whose own life blends with that of this rural retreat? Or perhaps the work of his son, Jean Georges Louis Marie, reasonably continuing the historical work, as a respectful duty or in conformity with the times? In any case, the park of Pompignan is a precious provincial reminder of a dying art.

 

Jean-Michel LASSURE, The Laffont pottery workshop at Cox (Haute-Garonne)

As a result of research into several pottery workshops at Cox, dating to the second half of the nineteenth century, each with its firing apparatus intact, it is now possible to conclude that, in most cases, structures intended as workshops were attached to pre-existing houses, or built separately. On the contrary, the workshops of the Laffont “pottery” were built at the same time, and were rationally organized according to their place in the successive stages of fabrication. Runoff from the roofs was collected in a basin, to be used in working the clay. Near the domestic quarters, a well provided water for domestic uses.
             The Laffont firing oven bears a resemblance to those of the other workshops studied, in its placement in the corner of two walls of rammed earth, in its north-south orientation and in its layout. The latter characteristics and the nearly-equal dimensions lead to the supposition that all of the contemporaneous firing setups were the work of a specialist.

 

Bulletin of the Academic Year 2003-2004

The minutes of the meetings of the Society give an account of its various activities, recording in particular the discussions which follow the lectures presented, whether or not the latter are published in the Mémoires. Also included is information on archaeological digs, restorations in progress and various discoveries in Toulouse and the region, as well as summaries and notes: The collection box of the Confrérie des Corps-Saints at Saint-Sernin de Toulouse; Fountains of Toulouse; The cathedral chapter at Auch in the thirteenth century; the recent return of sculptured remnants from the Berdoues cloister (Gers); A gothic mural painter from Villefranche-de-Rouergue; Guillaume de la Perrière and the publication of the Annales de Foix in 1539; The restoration of fourteenth-century murals of the Taur church in Toulouse; The bell-towers of the Limousin: origin, relationships and liturgical significance; Guillaume de la Perrière (1499-1554), A humanist studies politics; The importation of amphorae in south-western Gaul in late Antiquity; The old bell of Lherm (Haute-Garonne); bibliography of John Hine Mundy; Holding property in common in Cahors in the Middle Ages; The future of the Gérard-Marchant hospital…

 

Translated by Pamela Marquez
Department of History
Metropolitan State College of Denver

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