As one of the few surviving texts to have been produced by a Norman cathedral chapter during the eleventh century, the Acta archiepiscoporum Rotomagensium has long held the attention of scholars. Classified as a gesta episcoporum, the text was first edited towards the end of the seventeenth century, though was only studied for the first time in any real detail towards the end of the nineteenth. In recent years it has become one of the key focal points for scholars studying the rivalry that is believed to have existed between the cathedral of Rouen and its neighbouring abbey of St-Ouen de Rouen, which erupted most noticeably in the city during the last quarter of the eleventh century. This rivalry was played out on many levels, and the two institutions competed with each other for the restitution of land and other benefices from the duke and his leading magnates, as well as for the acquisition of relics and the subsequent attraction of pilgrims. Their rivalry also included the production of literary works, especially hagiographical texts. The abbey and cathedral are also believed to have competed with each other architecturally. Evidence for this is severely lacking, however, since little remains of the Romanesque structure at either site. Fortunately, detailed excavations have been carried out at the cathedral, which have revealed its eleventh century form, but the abbey has never been the subject of a survey in the modern era.
