Un temporel de marbre : marbriers, administration royale et religieux de l’abbaye de Caunes-Minervois (XVIIe – XVIIIe siècles)

Abstract En Fr

By 1610, on abbot Jean Alibert’s initiative, Italian sculptors come to exploit the marble quarries of Caunes, the owner of which is the abbot himself. The contract of 1633 grants them the exclusivity of extraction of blocks against duty payment and albergue. In the second half of the XVIIth century, a French marble mason takes over the lease in noble infeodation and supplies marble blocks for royal buildings. A financial dispute with the bursar of the abbey allows to specify the requirements of the convention whereas the importance of the orders tends to establish a royal monopoly and to reserve a particular site. At the beginning of the XVIIIth century, the monks gathered in chapter increase the rights of fortage paid by marble masons : two of them, then the whole group sign a mutual lease for the exclusive extraction of marbles. To obtain better incomes, the claims of the monks will not stop increasing until Revolution.

FRE: Languedoc, Toscane, marbres, Caunes-Minervois, Félines-Minervois, bâtiments royaux, carrières, sculpteurs et marbriers.