Silly

Title

Silly

Also Known As

Abbatia de Bosco, Beate Marie de Gouffer, Beate Marie de Gouffern, Ciliacum, Gofer, Goffer, Golfer, Selesia, Siliacum, Silleium, Silleum, Silleyum, Silliacum, Sillyacum, Sylleium

Dates

Founded 1151; dissolved 1790

Dedication

Laurent

Affiliation

Prémontré

Medieval Diocese

Séez

History

The abbey of Silly-en-Gouffern was founded ca. 1151 by the knight Drogon, and was endowed by the Empress Mathilda. It became an important regional abbey, but was badly damaged by English forces during the Hundred Years' War.

Silly became a commendatory abbey in 1546, and was suppressed in 1790. Much of the monastic complex was badly damaged at this time, and the abbey church was demolished. It was reconstructed in 1806 on a reduced footprint. The church today is still a parish church.

Not to be confused with Silly-la-Poterie (comm. Silly-la-Poterie) or Silly-Tillard (comm. Silly-Tillard).

Heads of Community

Abbots

Alain, fl. ca. 1150
Raoul?
Guillaume I, fl. 1203
Geoffroi?
Michel?
Philippe, fl. 1250
Richard I Fournier, fl. 1309
Richard II de Pelvel, fl. 1320
Réginald, fl. 1354
Nicolas de Pommainville, ?-1365
Jean I, fl. 1386
Nicolas Nicolet, ?-1400
Jean III le Cordier, 1420-1425
Guillaume II le Cordier, 1425-1444
Jean IV le Cordier de Magny
Maurice de Magny, 1454-1499
Jean V le Fort, 1499-1518
Guillaume Paris, 1518-1545

Status

Abbey

Archival Sources

Alençon, Archives départementales de l’Orne

H 1044 - H 1825 (12th-18th c.)

Flers, Médiathèque de Flers

MS 10 (F31) (19th c.; cartulary copy)

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale

MS lat. 10079

MS lat. 11059 (13th c.; cartulary)

Bibliography

Backmund, Norbert. “Notes sur l’abbaye de Silly-en-Gouffern.” Annales de Normandie 5 (1955): 295–300. https://doi.org/10.3406/annor.1955.6622.

Blin, J.-B.-N. Un privilège inédit du pape Innocent III publié d’après le cartulaire de l’abbaye de Silly. Avignon: Impr. Seguin Frères, 1888. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k936451j.

Brouette, Émile. “Notes extraites de l’obituaire de Silly.” Analecta Praemonstratensia 56 (1980): 229–38.

Drouet, Étienne-François, and Louis Moréri. “Silly.” In Le grand dictionnaire historique, ou Le mélange curieux de l’histoire sacrée et profane, 9:663–64. Paris, 1759. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5500775b.image.f1120.

Duval, Louis. Travaux d’art exécutés à l’abbaye de Notre-Dame de Silly-en-Gouffern aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Paris, 1901.

Fournée, Jean. Abbaye Notre-Dame de Silly. Abbayes et prieures de Normandie 9. Rouen: C.R.D.P., 1979.

———. “L’exercice du droit de paternité dans les abbayes normandes de l’ordre de Prémontré d’après les archives de l’abbaye de Silli.” Revue historique de droit français et étranger, 1968, 364–66. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43845427.

Gravelle-Desulis, Pierre Jacques. Notice sur l’abbaye de Silly. Alençon: Impr. de Vve Poulet-Malassis, 1852.

Talabardon, Catherine. “Les premières chartes de l’abbaye de Silly-en-Gouffern (1150-1250).” Bulletin de la Société Historique et Archéologique de l’Orne 91 (1973): 5–8.

———. “Les premières chartes de l’abbaye de Silly-en-Gouffern (Orne), 1150-1250.” Positions des thèses de l’École des Chartes, 1973, 171–74.

Image Credit

Postcard showing the remains of the abbatial complex, ca. 1910.

Files

Collection

Southern Normandy

Citation

“Silly,” A Premonstratensian Atlas, accessed October 16, 2026, https://yvonneseale.org/atlas/items/show/257.

Geolocation

Item Relations

This Item DependentOn Item: Prémontré
Item: Saint-Lambert-sur-Dive DependentOn This Item
Item: La Roche DependentOn This Item
Item: Aubry-en-Exmes DependentOn This Item
Item: Belhôtel DependentOn This Item
Item: Fougy DependentOn This Item
Item: Vandes DependentOn This Item
Item: Aubry-le-Panthou DependentOn This Item
Item: Bourg-Saint-Léonard DependentOn This Item