façade are surrounded by richly sculpted moldings. On the upper story is a grand rose
window, as large as the central doorway it surmounts. The arms of the antipope Clement
VII (r. 1378–94) appear sculpted in the portal to the right of the façade.
The church of the abbey of Saint-Pierre-de-Vienne, founded in the first half of the 6th
century, was built upon the foundation of a 4th-century Christian basilica. Until the 12th
century, it was the burial place of the archbishops of Vienne. Rebuilt in the 10th and 12th
centuries, it has a nave with aisles and an apse. At the front of the church stands a square
Romanesque bell tower (12th c.), and on the south portal is a sculpted tympanum (12th
c.).
The church of Saint-André-le-Bas was founded in 542. Ravaged by Muslims and
Franks, it was restored in the 9th century. Originally belonging to an order of nuns, it was
given to the Benedictines in the 10th century. Reconstructed ca. 1152, the building has no
aisles and is only 45 feet long. The extensive decorative program of the interior includes
an ornamental frieze and columns capped by historiated capitals. Bulging cross-ribbed
vaults are supported by flying buttresses, perhaps the first instance of this structure more
typical of the 13th and 14th centuries. On the exterior is a three-story bell tower like that
at Saint-Pierre.
Nina Rowe
Albrand, Emilie. L’église et le cloître de Saint-André-le-Bas a Vienne. Lyon: Presses des Audin,
1951.
Bégule, Lucien. L’église Saint-Maurice, ancienne cathédrale de Vienne en Dauphiné: son
architecture, sa décoration. Paris: Laurens, 1914.
Bretocq, Abbé Gabriel. “L’ancienne cathédrale Saint-Maurice de Vienne.” Bulletin monumental
110(1952):297–364.
Formigé, Jules. “Vienne.” Congrès archéologique (Valence et Montélimar) 86(1923):7–127.
VIES DES ANCIENS PÈRES. In the 6th century, a collection of Lives of monks and saints who lived in the desert of
Egypt was translated into Latin from Greek and formed, in ten books and an appendix,
what was collectively known as the Vitae patrum. This collection was frequently
translated into medieval French, the most interesting version being that by Wauchier de
Denain for Philippe, marshal of Namur (d. 1212). However, the title Vies des anciens
pères refers more specifically to a 13th-century collection of pious tales, totaling over
30,000 octosyllabic lines and found, in one of its several forms, in more than fifty
manuscripts and fragments. The first forty-two tales, from the early 13th century, are
largely oriental in inspiration. Well written, each has a prologue and focuses on
humanity’s role in its own salvation. The later tales, from mid-century, are more closely
related to the Miracles of the Virgin, lack prologues, and are generally set in
contemporary France. The straightforward narratives of the early group are replaced by
convoluted rhetoric, word play, and metrical intricacies in the manner of Gautier de
Coinci.
Claude J.Fouillade
[See also: GAUTIER DE COINCI; HAGIOGRAPHY; MIRACLE PLAYS; MORAL
TREATISES; SAINT PLAYS; SAINTS’ LIVES; TRANSLATION]
Lecoy, Felix, ed. Vies des Pères. Paris: SATF, 1988. [Edition of Tales 1–21.]
The Encyclopedia 1805