Auguste Molinier
Encyclopedia
August Molinier was a French historian.

He was born at Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

. He was a pupil at the École des Chartes, which he left in 1873, and also at the École des Hautes Études; and he obtained appointments in the public libraries at the Mazarine (1878), at Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the arrondissement of Fontainebleau...

 (1884), and at Sainte-Geneviève
Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève
The Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève inherited the writings and collections of one of the largest and oldest abbeys in Paris. Founded in the sixth century by Clovis I and subject to the rule of St. Benedict Abbey, initially devoted to the apostles Peter and Paul, in 512 received the body of the St...

, of which he was nominated librarian in 1885.

He was a good palaeographer and had a thorough knowledge of archives and manuscripts; and he soon won a first place among scholars of the history of medieval France. His thesis on leaving the École des Chartes was his (inserted in vol. xxxiv of the ), an important contribution to the history of the Albigenses. This marked him out as a capable editor for the new edition of by Dom Vaissète: he superintended the reprinting of the text, adding notes on the feudal administration of this province from 900 to 1250, on the government of Alphonse of Toulouse
Alphonse of Toulouse
Alfonso or Alphonse was the Count of Poitou from 1225 and Count of Toulouse from 1247.-Life:...

, brother of St Louis (1220–1271), and on the historical geography of the province of Languedoc
Languedoc
Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...

 in the Middle Ages.

He also wrote a , which was awarded a prize by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres
The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society devoted to the humanities, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France.-History:...

, but remained in manuscript. He also published several documents for the Société de l'Orient Latin ; for the Société de l'Histoire de France
Société de l'histoire de France
The Société de l'histoire de France was established on 21 December 1833 at the instigation of the French minister of Public Instruction, François Guizot, in order to contribute to the renewal of historical scholarship fuelled by a widespread interest in national history, typical of the Romantic...

 ; for the ; for the ; for the Recueil des historiens de la France ( 1904, 1906), etc., and several volumes in the .

Applying to the French classics the rigorous method used with regard to the texts of the Middle Ages, he published the Pensées
Pensées
The Pensées represented a defense of the Christian religion by Blaise Pascal, the renowned 17th century philosopher and mathematician. Pascal's religious conversion led him into a life of asceticism, and the Pensées was in many ways his life's work. "Pascal's Wager" is found here...

 of Pascal
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal , was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen...

, revised with the original manuscript (1887–1889), and the Provinciales (1891), edited with notes. In 1893 he was nominated professor at the , and gave a successful series of lectures which he published . He also taught at the . He died after a short illness, leaving in manuscript a criticism on the sources of the of Vincent de Beauvais.

His elder brother, Charles (born 1843), is also of some importance as an historian, particularly on the history of art and on the heresies of the Middle Ages. He was appointed professor of history at the university of Toulouse
University of Toulouse
The Université de Toulouse is a consortium of French universities, grandes écoles and other institutions of higher education and research, named after one of the earliest universities established in Europe in 1229, and including the successor universities to that earlier university...

 in 1886.

A younger brother, Émile (1857–1906), became an assistant in the print-room at the Bibliothèque Nationale
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...

, and afterwards joined the staff at the Musée du Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

, of which he eventually became keeper, retiring in 1902. He was a well-known connoisseur of art. He organized the famous Exposition rétrospective held at the Petit Palais
Petit Palais
The Petit Palais is a museum in Paris, France. Built for the Universal Exhibition in 1900 to Charles Girault's designs, it now houses the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts ....

 in 1900, and published a number of expert volumes on enamels
Vitreous enamel
Vitreous enamel, also porcelain enamel in U.S. English, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C...

, ceramics
Ceramics (art)
In art history, ceramics and ceramic art mean art objects such as figures, tiles, and tableware made from clay and other raw materials by the process of pottery. Some ceramic products are regarded as fine art, while others are regarded as decorative, industrial or applied art objects, or as...

and furniture.

Works

  • « Catalogue des actes de Simon et d'Amaury de Montfort » dans Bibliothèque de l’École des chartes, vol. 34
  • Étude sur l'administration féodale dans le Languedoc (900-1250), 1878
  • Les Pensées de Blaise Pascal. Texte revu sur le manuscrit autographe, avec une préface et des notes, 1877–1879
  • Itinera hierosolymitana et descriptiones terrae sanctae bellis sacris anteriora (ed. with Titus Tobler), 1879
  • Inventaire sommaire de la collection Joly de Fleury, 1881
  • Chronique normande du XIVe siècle, 1882, (ed. with Émile Molinier) Available on Gallica
  • Vie de Louis le Gros de Suger, suivie de lHistoire du roi Louis VII, 1887
  • Géographie historique de la province de Languedoc au Moyen Âge, 1889
  • Les Obituaires français au moyen âge, 1890
  • Les Provinciales de Blaise Pascal, avec une préface et des notes (2 vol.), 1891
  • Les manuscrits et les miniatures, 1892 Available on Gallica
  • Correspondance administrative d'Alfonse de Poitiers, 1894-1900 Available on Gallica: tome 1 tome 2
  • Les sources de l'histoire de France (des origines aux guerres d'Italie, 1494), 1901–1906
  • Collaboration on the catalogues of manuscripts of the libraries of Beaune, Toulouse, Dijon, Chartres, Cambrai, etc.
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