Normandy. The remainder of the façade, including the lateral portals, dates from the 13th
century; the south tower is a 17th-century recreation of the original design.
The Flamboyant parish church of Saint-Jacques was begun in 1496 by Guillaume de
Samaison and completed in the 1550s. Unfortunately, the original interior decoration,
consisting of the elegant Flamboyant stained-glass windows and rich painting on the
vaults, all disappeared in 1944. After many years of restoration work, only the skeleton of
the original church remains.
William W.Clark
[See also: CAUCHON, PIERRE]
Barral i Altet, Xavier. “Sculptures gothiques inédites de la cathédrale de lisieux.” Bulletin
monumental 139 (1981):7–16.
Clark, William W. “Saint-Pierre at Lisieux and the Beginning of Norman Gothic Architecture.”
Diss. Columbia University, 1970.
——. “The Central Portal of Saint-Pierre at Lisieux: A Lost Monument of Twelfth-Century Gothic
Sculpture.” Gesta 11 (1972):46–58.
——. “The Nave of Saint-Pierre at Lisieux: Romanesque Structure in a Gothic Guise.” Gesta 16
(1977):29–38.
Cottin, François. “Noviomagus Lexoviorum des temps les plus lointains à la fin de l’occupation
romaine.” Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de la Normandie 53 (1955–56): 169–96.
Erlande-Brandenburg, Alain. “La cathédrale de Lisieux: les campagnes deconstruction.”
Congrèsarchéologique(Bessin et Pays d’Auge) 132 (1974):137–72.
LIT DE JUSTICE
. Term originally used to describe the paraphernalia of the king’s seat in the Parlement de
Paris; by the 15th century, it also designated particularly important royal sessions of this
court. Its institutional significance was recognized when, in April 1485, Charles VIII
declared that in the Parlement de Paris “and nowhere else is held and must be held our lit
de justice.” As early as 1318, the space where the king sat in the Parlement was referred
to as a lit, and its imposing features are depicted in a copy of a drawing showing the trial
of Robert d’Artois in 1332. The elements of the lit (draped backdrop, covering, canopy,
and pillows) were similar to those of ordinary beds (lits) used for sleeping and ceremonial
purposes. Although the parliamentary lit was not yet connected terminologically with
royal dispensation of justice, Charles V was said to be “holding his justice” when he
issued an ordonnance on majority in the Parlement in 1375. By 1387, official records of
the court referred to the lit de justice, used in that year at the trial of Charles of Navarre
and regularly set up when the king visited the Parlement (even though records of the
court’s proceedings did not always mention it). In 1396, a clerk of the court, doubtless
influenced by current usage, extended the name by metonymy from apparatus to session,
writing that the lit de justice was held when Charles VI attended the court to solicit
advice concerning a pardon.
The lit de justice was soon an established institution: in 1404, Christine de Pizan
praised Charles V for holding “the lit de justice, in cases reserved for him to decide.”
Official records applied the term to sessions held in 1413 at which reforming measures
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