ALÈS (Alais, according to pre-1926 spelling). - City in southern France (department of Gard), of ancient Celtic origin (Alestum, Alesiensis civitas: whence the heraldic coat of arms with half-spread wings). It suffered greatly during the "wars of religion" (1559-

1598): it was the scene of extremely bloody struggles that destroyed a large part of its records and its monuments. In 1692 Louis XIV chose it, with the approval of Innocent XII, as the seat of a new bishopric, making it the headquarters of the struggle against the "Camisards" or Huguenots of the Cévennes: a bishopric later abolished by the Constituent Assembly in 1790. Today the small town is part of the diocese of Nîmes (v.).

A commercial and industrial center since the 12th century, A. also had a Studium, which in the 13th century became notable especially for its school of law. The documents concerning it are lost, apart from three contracts that the city concluded with professors sought for teaching (published by E. de Rozière and M. Fournier). The Studium was only of local importance.

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: C. Jourdain, Etude sur l'Ecole d'A., in Revue des Sociétés savantes, 4e serie, 10 (1869), pp. 181-284; E. de Rozière, L'Ecole de droit d'A., in Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes, 31 (1870), pp. 51-67; A. Drade, L'Ecole de Droit d'A. au XIIIe siècle, in Comptes rendus de la Société scientifique et littér. d'Albi, 3 (1871), pp. 169-72; A. Bardon, Les écoles à A. sous l'ancien régime, Nîmes 1889; M. Fournier, Les Statuts et Privilèges des Universités Françaises, II, Paris 1891, pp. 739-42.

Igno Cecchetti

@incollection{ec1_ales_alais_secondo_la_grafia_a, author = {Cecchetti, Igino}, title = {Alès (Alais, secondo la grafia anteriore al 1926)}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {751--752}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ales-alais-secondo-la-grafia-anteriore-al-1926} }

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Alès (Alais, according to pre-1926 spelling)

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