LE-PUY-EN-VELAY - Cloister of the cathedral (11th-12th centuries) restored in the 19th century.
the baptistery; the cruciform basin was reached by steps arranged in three arms of the cross itself.
Bibliography2 works
Enrico Josi
LE-PUY-en-VELAY, DIOCESE of. - City and diocese, capital of the department of Haute-Loire in France, at the foot of Mount Anis, whence the Latin name of the diocese (Anicien).
It has an area of 4,800 sq. km. with 228,076 inhabitants, of whom 200,000 are Catholics. It has 280 parishes, served by 57 diocesan priests and 26 regulars, a major and a minor seminary, 49 male religious communities and 183 female (Annuario Pontificio, 1951, pp. 244-45).
The first episcopal see was at Ruessium, and according to a tradition it was transferred to Puy by the bishop St. Evodius (Vosy); but it is not known whether he is the bishop present at Valence in 374; according to another version, the first bishop of Le-P. would have been George. A note inserted in ms. 2294 of the National Library of Paris gives the following list of bishops of Le-P.: "Evodius, Aurelius, Suacrus, Scutarius, Ermentarius". Of these, Scutarius is attested by two inscriptions (CIL, XIII, 1, 1575, 1587); Aurelius is assigned to Le-P. in 590 by St. Gregory of Tours (Historia Francorum, X, 25). Then the following are known: Arduino, present at the Council of Thusey in 860 and of Soissons in 866; Wido, who took part in 876 in the Council of Pontion; Norbert, who at the end of the 9th century transferred the bodies of Sts. George and Marcellinus from St-Paulien to Le-P. In 1257 the bishop of Le-P. was Guido Fulcodi, later Clement IV (v.). For several centuries the diocese was immediately subject to the Holy See. In 1525 its administrator was Card. Agostino Trivulzio. Suppressed in the Concordat of 1801 and united with that of St-Flour, it was restored in 1823.
The Cathedral, Notre-Dame, constitutes one of the most conspicuous monuments of Romanesque art. The apse is of the 11th century; the rest is of the 12th century. At the crossing of the naves, in the bays of the nave and of the porch, domes rise; of the frescoes that decorated the walls, remains survive in the transept and in the porch. The polychrome facade of beautiful effect (12th century) is reached by a broad flight of steps. Between the transept and the apse there are two porches, one called that of St. John, the other that of the For. The adjoining cloister is also of the 12th century. The baptistery (St. John) dates back instead to the 11th century; also near the Cathedral are the octagonal chapel of St. Clare, of the second half of the 12th century, and the churches of St. Bartholomew, of St. Peter and of St. Lawrence. On a rock 85 m. high is the characteristic sanctuary of St. Michael of Aiguilhe, founded in the 10th century. Above the city, on the top of the Corneille rock, rises majestically the statue of Notre-Dame de France, erected in 1860, the work of Bonassieux. In the Treasury of the Cathedral is preserved the illuminated Bible known as that of Charles the Bald, commissioned by Theodulf, bishop of Orléans (798-818), in the monastery of Fleury, today St. Benoît-sur-Loire. In the ancient capitular Library annexed to the cloister, the canon Odin had allegorical frescoes of the liberal arts executed at the time of the bishop John of Bourbon (end of the 11th century-beginning of the 16th century). - See plate LXXVI.
BIBL. Eubel, I, pp. 90-91, II, p. 100; III, p. 123; L. Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule, II, 2nd ed., Paris 1910, pp. 55-58; J. Langlade, Le-P.-en-V., ibid. 1921; G. and P. Paul, Notre-Dame du Puy, ibid. 1926; A. Fikry, L'art roman du Puy et les influences islamiques, ibid. 1934; Cottineau, II, col. 2378; Guide de la France chrétienne et missionnaire 1918-49, ibid. 1948, pp. 600-602, 1035-36.
Enrico Josi