The `labours of Hercules', the cartulary, church and abbey for nuns of la Cour-Notre-Dame-de-Michery

Abstract

La Cour-Notre-Dame was an abbey of Cistercian nuns in the diocese of Sens in France founded circa 1225 and suppressed circa 1496. At the latter date its female occupants were replaced by a community of monks detached from Cı̂teaux; henceforth la Cour was called a priory of Cistercian monks. The church of la Cour-Notre-Dame still stands and its preservation has become a matter of local political concern. Its cartulary, compiled at the time of the suppression, is unusual; rather than simply a collection of land acquisition documents (although preservation of title deeds was important), the cartulary's major purpose seems to have been to justify the suppression of the community of religious women, the takeover of their properties by the abbot of Cı̂teaux, and the diversion of some properties to Saint-Germain-des-Prés (as is noted in the cartulary's margins) to pay debts owed to that Parisian abbey by Cı̂teaux. In addition to considering how problematic the cartulary for la Cour-Notre-Dame is as a witness to the financial condition of la Cour or its abbesses' management of its properties, this evaluation of the community of nuns and their church addresses larger questions about the financing of space for communities of religious women and about the propriety of accusations of ‘extravagance’ in architecture designed for them.