French historian (1851–1904)
Auguste Molinier (30 September 1851 – 19 May 1904) was a French historian.
Biography.
Born in Toulouse, Auguste Molinier was a student at the École Nationale des Chartes, which he left in 1873, and also at the École pratique des hautes études; and he obtained appointments in the public libraries at the Mazarine (1878), at Fontainebleau (1884), and at Sainte-Geneviève, 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, brother of St Louis (1220–1271), and on the historical geography of the province of Languedoc in the Middle Ages.
He also wrote a ', which was awarded a prize by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, but remained in manuscript. He also published several documents for the Société de l'Orient Latin (', in collaboration with Carolus Kohler, 1885); for the Société de l'Histoire de France (', assisted by his brother Émile, 1883); for the (', by Suger, 1887); for the (', 1894–1900); 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" of Pascal, 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 (', 1902–1906). 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 in 1886.
A younger brother, Émile (1857–1906), was keeper at the Musée du Louvre and a well-known connoisseur of art.
References.
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