Guillem Dalmau, Doctorant en histoire de l’art moderne, sous la direction de Julien Lugand (UPVD) et Francesc Miralpeix (UdG)
UMR 5136 FRAMESPA – Université de Perpignan Via Domitia (UPVD)
About the silver of Saint-Michel de Cuxa
The silver of the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Michel de Cuixà is known by some inventories from the second half of the 18th century. Their studies have led researchers to affirm that the monastery’s silverware disappeared in 1791, melted down in the furnaces of the Perpignan mint.
But is it so sure ?
The present contribution follows the discovery of three new inventories, two dating from the last third of the 16th century and a third from the middle of the 17th century. The analysis of these unpublished sources and their comparison with the inventories of the 18th century allow us to resume the study of the abbey’s silver and to qualify the idea of a total disappearance of the treasure during the revolutionary melting.