[1] Aquicintum, later Aquacignium and then Anchin (or Enchin), was a 25 hectare island forming part of the territory of Pecquencourt, between the marais, the river Scarpe and the Bouchart brook.

[2] The hermit and confessor Gordaine[3] built his hermitage on the island in the 8th century[4] and is sometimes considered the abbey's founder: an anonymous 17th-century painting in the church of Saint-Gilles at Pecquencourt shows his miracles.

It was suppressed in the French Revolution, declared state property by the decree of 28 October 1790, sold to François-Joseph Tassart of Douai on 27 March 1792 for 47,700 livres and demolished later that year.

[9] The grand organ, with sixty stops and four manual keyboards, two of which are five octaves long, built in 1732 for the abbey by Cornil Cacheux and completed by Charles Dallery, with its buffet adorned with statues of David and Sainte Cécile carved in 1760 by Antoine Gili (1702–1781) [10] after drawings of the monks, was transferred in 1792 to the Collégiale Saint-Pierre de Douai by Louis Péronard.

[11] Gossuin, beloved disciple of Bernard of Clairvaux, contemporary and conqueror of Abelard, was one of the most learned men of his time who instituted a school of manuscript illumination in his abbey.