In 1093, the bishop of Poitiers gave the chapel of Notre-Dame to the abbey of Saint-
Savin-sur-Gartempe. The crypt of the church constructed later houses a 13th-century
Romanesque fresco that some sources claim to be the first representation of St.
Catherine’s “mystical marriage” to Christ. Others contend that it represents the
intercession of the Virgin Mary on behalf of the church. Modifications of this second
theme since its first appearance in the 9th century, and a representation of the legend of
St. Catherine at Alexandria, would then be the causes for the confusion between the two
themes.
A 12th-century frieze on the western front of the church of Saint-Laurent, formerly the
abbey church of the Augustinian canons, shows the Childhood of Jesus. The most
remarkable of the scenes is the Flight into Egypt, in which the Holy Family is trailed by
James, who was, according to apocryphal sources, the son of Joseph from an earlier
marriage.
The Octogone and Maison-Dieu of Montmorillon were both begun in the first quarter
of the 12th century. The Octogone was originally constructed to serve as a sepulchral
chapel. At the end of the century, a second chapel was built above it, and the first was all
but abandoned, being used for an ossuary.
Kristen E.Sukalec
Duprat, Clémence-Paul. “La peinture romane en France.” Bulletin monumental 102(1943–44):7–
12.
Grosset, Charles. “La Maison-Dieu de Montmorillon.” Congrès archéologique (Poitiers)
109(1951):192–206.
Thibout, Marc. “Notre Dame de Montmorillon.” Congrès archéologique (Poitiers) 109(1951):207–
19.
MONTPELLIER
. Montpellier, first noted in documents of the 10th century as a rural site, is located close
to the Mediterranean in Languedoc. By the late 11th century, a bustling town of artisans
and merchants had developed under divided political allegiance to the bishop of
Maguelone and local lay lords of the Guilhem family. The king of Aragon and Majorca
would replace the Guilhem as seigneurs in the 13th century. The king of France made his
influence felt in the south increasingly after the Treaty of Meaux-Paris (1229), which
brought Languedoc under Capetian domination following the Albigensian Crusade. In
1293, Philip IV the Fair purchased the episcopal quarter of Montpellier, and in 1349
Philip VI would acquire the seigneurial sector from the bankrupt Majorcan king James III
for 120,000 écus.
The economic heyday of Montpellier was the 13th century. Northern French and
Flemish cloth, dyed scarlet in Montpellier, was exported throughout the Mediterranean
world. Spices, drugs, sugar, and silks of the East were imported by Montpelliérains and
sold on the local markets or transshipped to centers of demand throughout the western
Mediterranean basin and northwestern Europe. Montpellier grew to about 40,000
inhabitants by the early 14th century. Immigrants from Italy, Spain, and central France
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