Evidence for the administration of a nunnery in the early 13th century, Arras, northern France

A leaf from a Cartulary of the bishops of Arras, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum  [Northern France (Arras), late 13th century] 

310 × 220 mm, ruled in leadpoint for 30 lines written in a fine gothic bookhand with capitals stroked in red and rubrics in red, a medieval number “lxxv” (i.e. 75), referring to the number of the document on the same page below, is crossed through, next to it is the medieval folio number “iiij^xxxij” (i.e. 92), each document with a large initial, alternately blue or red, with fine dense penwork in the other colour, extending the full height of the page with further penwork and cascading-J ornament; with trivial creasing in the lower margin, not affecting the text, overall a very handsome leaf in excellent condition.

Provenance
1. From a manuscript entitled “Registrum kartarum et privilegiorum ad episcopatum Attrebatensem pertinentium” (Register of charters and privileges of the bishops of Arras), once in the archives of the bishopric, but probably lost during the First World War; its contents were summarised by A. Guesnon, ‘Le cartulaire de l’évêché d’Arras: Manuscrit du XIIe siècle avec des additions successives jusqu’au milieu du XIVe siècle, analysé chronologiquement’, Mémoire de l’Académie des Sciences, Lettres et Arts d’Arras, 2nd series, XXXIII (1902), pp. 165–323 (citing the present leaf at p. 189 no. 91), and he printed a slection of the documents in 1870 (see below); the volume was also listed by H. Stein, Bibliographie générale des cartulaires français ou relatifs à l’histoire de France (Paris, 1907), p. 31 no. 220.
2. Inscribed “malbaux / 1779 / secretaire”: this doubtless refers to Antoine-Christophe Malbaux (b.1725), secrétaire of the archbishopric of Arras, who was guillotined on 6 April 1794, but the reason for his name on this leaf is unclear.
3. The manuscript was broken-up and dispersed at an unknown date between 1902 and 1951. The RegeCart online database records that several leaves belonged to Dr A.C.F. Koch, librarian and archivist of Deventer, who discovered two leaves of the manuscript in Cologne in 1951 and further fragments in Leipzig several years later. Another leaf was Bernard Quaritch Ltd, Catalogue 1439: Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts (London, 2019), no. 17 (col. ill.).

Text
The leaf opens towards the end of a document written at Lyon on 20 June ‘in the third your of our pontificate’ (the pontiff is not named); there follows a document dated February 1221 (1222, New Style) headed “De quibusdam statutis per episcopum Attrebatensem Poncii fratris in monasterio strumensi. lxxv.”, written by Pontius, bishop of Arras from 1221 to 1231; finally there is the first line of another document, of the Count of Flanders, with a heading, “Littere comitis Flandrensis super redditu. xl. solidi apud Bappal’ pro pane et vino ad conficiendum Corpus Christi. lxxvi.”
The complete middle document concerns the nunnery for noble ladies of Notre Dame at Étrun, a few miles north-west of Arras, variously called Strumen, Estreu, Estrum et Parthenon Strumensis in Latin (and Stroom in Flemish): “… quod cum moniales Strumensis monastretii ob animarum suarum salutem de nostro consilio et mandato. presentibus viris religiosis domno Odone Sancti Vedasti Attrebatensis, Richardo de Monte Sancti Elygii, & Petro de Mareolo abbatibus multisque aliis personis autenticis et honestis …”. It is printed by A. Guesnon, ‘Le Cartulaire de l’éveché d’Arras’, Mémoires de l’Académie des sciences lettres et arts d’Arras, 32 (1870), at pp. 274–75 no. LXXV. The nuns, having renounced all worldly property, are to be given an annual provision for food and clothes (including six pints of wine twice a week, and having their clothes washed once a fortnight). In 1222 the abbess was Marie II de Fosseux; the history of the abbey is detailed in B. Lesueur de Moriamé, Histoire d’Etrun: l’abbaye, la commune (Arras, 1899).