Auguste Molinier facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Auguste Molinier
Born	30 September 1851 Toulouse
Died	19 May 1904(1904-05-19) (aged 52) Toulouse
Occupation	Historian

Auguste Molinier (born September 30, 1851, died May 19, 1904) was a famous French historian. He spent his life studying and writing about the past, especially the Middle Ages in France.

Auguste Molinier's Life Story

Auguste Molinier was born in Toulouse, France. He was a very bright student. He studied at two important schools: the École Nationale des Chartes (a school for archivists and librarians) and the École pratique des hautes études. He finished his studies at the École des Chartes in 1873.

Working in Libraries

After school, Auguste Molinier worked in several public libraries.

• He worked at the Mazarine Library starting in 1878.
• Then, he moved to the Fontainebleau Library in 1884.
• Finally, he became the head librarian at the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève in 1885.

His Skills as a Historian

Molinier was excellent at reading old handwriting (this skill is called palaeography). He also knew a lot about old records and manuscripts. Because of his skills, he quickly became one of the top experts in the history of medieval France. The Middle Ages is a period of European history from about 500 AD to 1500 AD.

His final project at the École des Chartes was a detailed list of documents about Simon and Amaury de Montfort. This was a big help for understanding the history of the Albigenses. The Albigenses were a religious group in southern France during the Middle Ages.

Contributions to French History

Auguste Molinier helped create a new edition of a very important history book called L'histoire générale de Languedoc. This book was originally written by Dom Vaissète. Molinier made sure the text was reprinted correctly. He also added his own notes about how the Languedoc region was run between 900 and 1250. He also wrote about the government of Alphonse of Toulouse, who was the brother of St Louis. Alphonse lived from 1220 to 1271. Molinier also added information about the geography of Languedoc in the Middle Ages.

He also wrote a huge list of books and writings about Languedoc, called Bibliographie du Languedoc. This work won an award, but it was never officially published.

Molinier published many important historical documents for different societies.

• For the Société de l'Orient Latin, he published Itinera hierosolymitana (travels to Jerusalem), working with Carolus Kohler in 1885.
• For the Société de l'Histoire de France, he published a Norman chronicle from the 14th century, Chronique normande du XIVe siècle, with his brother Émile in 1883.
• He also edited the Vie de Louis le Gros (Life of Louis the Fat) by Suger in 1887.
• He worked on the administrative letters of Alphonse de Poitiers from 1894 to 1900.
• He helped with the Recueil des historiens de la France (Collection of French Historians), including Obituaires de la province de Sens (records of deaths) in 1904 and 1906.
• He also contributed to several volumes in the Recueil des catalogues des bibliothèques publiques de France (Collection of Catalogues of French Public Libraries).

Teaching and Later Life

Molinier also used his careful research methods to study classic French writers. He published new versions of the Pensées (Thoughts) and Provinciales (Provincial Letters) by Blaise Pascal. He checked these against Pascal's original handwritten notes.

In 1893, he became a professor at the École des Chartes. He gave popular lectures and later published them as Manuel des sources de l'histoire de France au Moyen âge (Handbook of Sources for the History of France in the Middle Ages) from 1902 to 1906. He also taught at the École pratique des hautes études.

Auguste Molinier passed away after a short illness. He left behind an unfinished work about the sources of Speculum historiale by Vincent de Beauvais.

His Brothers

Auguste Molinier had two brothers who were also important.

• His older brother, Charles (born 1843), was also a historian. He focused on art history and medieval heresies. He became a history professor at the university of Toulouse in 1886.
• His younger brother, Émile (1857–1906), was a curator at the Musée du Louvre. He was known for his knowledge of art.

What Did He Write?

Here are some of the important books and studies Auguste Molinier worked on:

• "Catalogue des actes de Simon et d'Amaury de Montfort" in Bibliothèque de l’École des chartes, vol. 34 (1873)
• Étude sur l'administration féodale dans le Languedoc (900-1250) (Study on Feudal Administration in Languedoc), 1878
• Les Pensées de Blaise Pascal. Texte revu sur le manuscrit autographe, avec une préface et des notes (Blaise Pascal's Thoughts, revised from the original manuscript), 1877–1879
• Itinera hierosolymitana et descriptiones terrae sanctae bellis sacris anteriora (Journeys to Jerusalem and descriptions of the Holy Land before the Crusades), edited with Titus Tobler, 1879
• Inventaire sommaire de la collection Joly de Fleury (Summary Inventory of the Joly de Fleury Collection), 1881
• Chronique normande du XIVe siècle (Norman Chronicle of the 14th Century), edited with Émile Molinier, 1882 Available on Gallica
• Vie de Louis le Gros de Suger, suivie de lHistoire du roi Louis VII (Life of Louis the Fat by Suger, followed by the History of King Louis VII), 1887
• Géographie historique de la province de Languedoc au Moyen Âge (Historical Geography of the Province of Languedoc in the Middle Ages), 1889
• Les Obituaires français au moyen âge (French Obituaries in the Middle Ages), 1890
• Les Provinciales de Blaise Pascal, avec une préface et des notes (Blaise Pascal's Provincial Letters, with a preface and notes), 2 volumes, 1891
• Les manuscrits et les miniatures (Manuscripts and Miniatures), 1892 Available on Gallica
• Correspondence administrative d'Alfonse de Poitiers (Administrative Correspondence of Alphonse 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) (The Sources of French History, from origins to the Italian Wars, 1494), 1901–1906
• He also helped create catalogues of manuscripts for libraries in Beaune, Toulouse, Dijon, Chartres, Cambrai, and other places.