SUMMARY

 

Jean-Luc BOUDARTCHOUK et alii, The 'sacred lakes' and the gold of the Tectosagi of Toulouse in literary sources from late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the modern era

The 'sacred lake(s)' in which the Gold of Toulouse is supposed to have been stored before being pillaged by Caepio in 106 BC are only referred to in two independant sources: Strabo and Justin. It is the latter's account, as well as that of Orosius which derives from it, which gave rise to medieval legends about Toulouse and to later researches in modern times attempting to locate these 'sacred lakes'. These researches bore no fruit and the ambiguous nature of the sources leads one to question whether there ever indeed existed any such 'sacred lakes' in Toulouse. The writers of Antiquity may simply have meant to indicate underground deposits of precious metals, common in the Celtic world.

 

Louis LATOUR, The Gallo-Roman excavations at Auterive (Haute-Garonne). A study of the most recent levels

The Gallic levels of the Purgatoire site, dated to the first century BC, have revealed a clear predominance of local and regional products, the only Italic importations being limited to Dressel I amphorae and Campanian ceramics. Although it already belonged to Gallia Narbonensis, the region retained its economic autonomy, while developing strong ties with Rome and Campagna. This phase of limited colonisation was succeeded by a period of more active Romanisation, revealed in the Augustan levels of the site by the massive importation of Italic products: stamped ceramics from the workshop of Cnaeus Ateius or his freedmen, millefiori, fine glassware, and intaglios. These Italic imports were soon joined by Iberian products: Spanish wine, oil and fine ceramics from Baetica. These sophisticated objects, possibly introduced by legionaries, were intended for a prosperous clientele familiar with Roman practices; they were rapidly adopted by the local population, starting with the wealthy farmers of the Ariège valley and of the neighbouring Lauragais region.

 

Vincent GENEVIÈVE, The Julio-Claudian coins from the Purgatoire site at Auterive (Haute-Garonne)

The assortment of money collected from the early 1960s at the Purgatoire site at Auterive, some forty kilometres south of Toulouse, consists of 98 silver and bronze coins struck between the second century BC and the middle of the first century AD The collection's interest lies largely in its size and diversity, but also in the presence of numerous countermarks on the Nîmes bronze coins, of which one is extremely rare and one hitherto unknown. The unusual terminus of the whole - the end of the Julio-Claudian period - allows a close study of monetary circulation during the first decades of the first century AD, and leads to further questioning on the activities and the real purpose of the site.

 

Hélène DÉBAX, Feudal keys: the enclosure of fortresses in 12th-century Languedoc

By definition, a castrum must be closed. In Languedoc during the 12th century the construction of enclosures was the subject of many charters, most of which demonstrate that the control of fortifications was a right reserved to the overlord. When a fortress was held as a joint lordship, then joint agreement was needed over the construction of both enclosures and towers. But any enclosure must of necessity have a gate or gates, potential breaches and weak points, which therefore occasion particular attention from a lord. In certain fortresses the gate was separately enfeoffed, entrusted to a vassal whose duty it was to guard and reinforce it if necessary. When a whole fortress was given as a fief, the vassal would be given rights to decide over entry and access but the lord would always reserve to himself sovereign rights to have the fortress opened to him whenever he might ask, by night or by day, in time of war or time of peace, and without delay, thus ensuring that the fortress could always be handed over to him. This possibility of restitution encapsulates the very essence of feudal hierarchy. The ceremony of handing over a fortress was sometimes structured as the formal handing over of the key to the gate. Possession of the keys therefore constituted a major factor within the feudal hiercharchy and was often the source of quarrels between lords, vassals, and undervassals, or between lords holding joint rights.

 

Françoise GALÉS, The medieval tower of King Alphonso II of Aragon in Millau (Aveyron)

In Millau the tower supporting the belfry is one of the few remaining witnesses of late 12th-century architecture, probably the remains of a palace of which only this, the most significant element, survives, and is of a particularly careful construction. Little touched despite the ravages of time, notably its transformation into a prison during the ancien régime, it has kept almost intact its remarkable medieval architectural construction. It illustrates not only local history but also the domination of the Kings of Aragon over Millau and the Gévaudan area, as also the international conflicts that stirred the history of feudal Languedoc.

 

Christian Darles, The 'Roman bridge' of Molières-Puycornet (Tarn-et-Garonne)

Study of the Vert Bridge at the boundaries of Molières and Puycornet (Tarn-et-Garonne) began with archival researches helping to direct work on the site. An architectural plan of the whole was made and also a precise but partial 'stone by stone' survey of each of the visible areas. During the cleaning of the bridge, a study of broken fragments led to the discovery of the remains of several piers. This majestic construction consisted during its third state (17th century?) of five arches and four piers. It was more than seven metres wide and it was only later, towards the middle of the 19th century, that it was reduced to less than five metres. The first two earlier bridges had just a single archway and served as a dam across the end of the valley, which may well explain its repeated destruction. Carbon 14 examination allows one to date the earliest construction to the end of the 12th century.

 

Agnès MARIN, The episcopal palace of the archbishops of Narbonne in Capestang (Hérault)

An archaeological study carried out within the framework of restoration work to the palace of the archbishops of Narbonne in Capestang led to definition of the stages at which this little-known building was first begun and its successive transformations. Upon a base level of a nucleus of fairly unspecific constructions dating from the 12th century was built an imposing tower-room with machicolated buttresses, this marking the rise to power of the archbishops in Capestang at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. During the second half of the 13th century the whole was completed with an enclosure with flanking circular towers, characteristic of the 'châteaux neufs' of Philip Augustus. The layout of the aula situated on the first floor of this tower went through three main phases between the 13th and the middle of the 15th century. The high quality of the building construction and of the successive painted decorative schemes allows glimpses of the princely splendours of the way of life of these medieval prelates.

 

Georges Costa, The workshops of Gilles de la Touche-Aguesse, architect of the Duc d'Épernon, in Cazaux-Savès (Gers)

Anne de Batarnay and her husband Bernard de la Valette wished to found a religious house for the Order of Minims and a hospital in Cazaux. It fell to their heir, Jean-Louis de La Valette, duke of Épernon, to bring this foundation into being. On 27 April 1612 a contract was signed with Bernard Serres, a Toulouse mason. The church was finished in 1617, but the monks only moved into the monastery in 1621. In 1622 the cabinet-maker Louis Behory was asked to construct the choir stalls and the retable of the high altar, and a painting of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was ordered from the painter Gabriel Rivet, while in 1623 a marble tomb for the founder's parents was ordered from the sculptor Arthur Legoust. All these Toulouse artists are well known, but the same is not true of the architect Gilles de la Touche, who was in charge of the works for the duc d'Épernon at the castle of Cadillac from 1604 until 1615. The monastery of the Order of Minims in Cazaux must be added to the list of his works, and also the south wing of the castle of Caumont. The architect died in November 1622 in Nîmes, where he had been put in charge of the demolition of the town fortifications.

 

Jean-Michel LASSURE, The decoration of dishes and plates from the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century workshops of Giroussens (Tarn): part 2

Series II, with a brown and blue decoration, datable to the end of the 17th century or the beginning of the 18th century, has only a few representatives almost all of which are plates whose border decoration has been simplified even though the motifs used in the bowl are close to those of series I. Series III, which consists of a dish dated 1671, is characterised by brown and green decoration, and is also close to series I, but the motifs have been schematised and are less varied. Series IV, by far and away the most numerous, consists almost entirely of plates. A more rapid manufacturing process has led to a decline in quality. The brown and green decoration is limited in the basin to repetitive use of highly stylised floral or geometric themes, with no human figures at all; birds are the only zoomorphic elements found. The border motifs are irregularly spaced. Archaeological information from sites in Toulouse and various sites in Canada allow one to date this series to the eighteenth century.

 

Bernard MONTAGNES, O.P., The translation of the relics of St Thomas Aquinas (Toulouse, 24 July 1878)

The year 1874 marked the sexcentenary of the death of St Thomas Aquinas. Toulouse, which has held the saint's body since 1369, was bound to celebrate this anniversary. Canon Duilhé de Saint-Projet had hoped for an academic conference of learned Catholics but the project was premature and did not take place. Archbishop Desprez took the initiative of ordering a magnificent Neo-Gothic reliquary into which the relics were to be transferred during a great liturgical ceremony in Saint-Sernin. The Dominicans o f Toulouse, as we learn from a file in their archives, felt themselves to have been sidelined, and wished to reassert their ancient rights to possession of the relics.

 

Bulletin of the Academic Year 2005-2006

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 church of Sainte-Matrone in Mazères-sur-Salat; the taking down and the restoration of "Dame Tholose"; Roman glyptic; two stray pieces from the former College of Pamplona in Toulouse; the restoration of the gateway of the Hotel Molinier in Toulouse; the original act of retractation of the heretic Pierre Maurand in 1178; Portraits of the first century of the Roman empire; the sacking of the castle of Lacroix-Falgarde; the Porte Miégeville of Saint-Sernin in Toulouse: the stages of its construction with some iconographic remarks; the episcopal palace of Mazerette in Mirepoix in the 16th century; new research into the church of Santa-Maria de Cap d'Aran in the former diocese of the Comminges; work in progress at the Collège de Foix in Toulouse; archaeological researches in the road called the Descente-de-la-Halle-au-Poisson ('the way down to the Fish Market'); the amphorae of Auterive, a study of Roman commercial activity on the borders of the Ariège, from the end of the Republican era up to the beginning of the Second Empire (from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD); the development of the faubourg Saint-Cyprien (1100-1450); the page from the manuscript Annals of Toulouse said to be of 1447: a new dating and a new interpretation…

 

Translated by Lisa Barber

 

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