FLAUBERT Gustave (1821-1880).

autograph MANUSCRIT, Notes historiques sur le Moyen Âge, [ca. 1837]; two folders of 27 folio pages in titled folder (30 x 8.5 cm), and 43 mostly folio pages in titled folder (32 x 20 cm approx.). Interesting set of early historical notes that were used for Bouvard and Pécuchet. The title page of the first folder reads: "Notes historiques sur le Moyen Âge/Italy (476-774)/Les nations germaniques émigrées/England/Africa/Germany"; below this summary, Flaubert has indicated his sources: "7th and 8th volume of Gibbon, first volume of the conquest of England by the Normans by Augustin Thierry [1825]". These notes are written in brown ink on 6 bifolios (completed by 2 single sheets). The most developed part (17 p.) concerns Italy, under the kingdom of the Heruli (476-493), with the reign of Odoacre; then the "Kingdom of the Ostrogoths 493-554", and the reigns of Theodorik the Great, Amalasonthe (his daughter), Theodat, Vitiges, Totila, Teias; the "Exarchate of Ravenna", followed by the "Kingdom of the Lombards 568-774". The part devoted to "Great Britain 448-827" is 7 pages long and ends with a chapter on "Christianity introduced in Britain". This is followed by brief notes on Spain, Africa and Germania. The second file is classified under a folder titled: "Notes historiques/Histoire de France/Société féodale dans ses rapports civils et religieux/chevalerie et féodalité". These notes will be used in Bouvard and Pécuchet, for the historical research of the two companions. On a small added sheet, entitled "Duties of the knight", Flaubert recopied, according to Sainte-Palaye, a poem of Eustache (falsely named Émile) Deschamps (Ballade du Bachelier d'Armes). Flaubert borrowed his notes from various authors, under the following headings: "État des idées actuelles (1830) sur le M. age" (from volume IV of Guizot's Histoire de la Civilisation en France), "De la Chevalerie" (from Jean-Jacques Ampère's article of this title in the Revue des deux mondes in 1838), "Chevalerie/investiture chevaleresque" (from Guizot), "Féodalité" (from Mably's Observations sur l'histoire de France), "Féodalité. Appearance of the communes" (after Mably), "Feudal relations. Vassals among themselves" (after the Customs of Beaumanoir quoted by Guizot), "Relations of the vassal to the suzerain" (idem), "Judicial combat" (after the Spirit of the Laws of Montesquieu); after notes on the "Pairies", a last leaf summarizes the "General character of the feudal society": "Any society has a double element. What the individual brings to the society and the personality of the individual in feudalism individuality prevails in barbarism individual freedom is complete wandering, in feudalism it is fixed it is a progress. The social principle is excessively weak in feudalism. Great inequality of forces. Absorption of small fiefs by large ones. The feudal jurisdiction itself is postponed to the superior suzerains ". Provenance: the two files come from the estate of Flaubert's niece, Caroline Franklin-Grout. The first one comes from the sale of November 18-19, 1931 at the Hôtel Drouot; it is signed at the bottom of the title folder by the auctioneer Raymond Warin and by the expert of the sale René Morot, who certifies that it corresponds to the n° 183 of the minutes (probably corresponding to the n° 133 of the catalog: 127 pages of notes in a folder titled Histoire). The second file bears the ink stamp of the Flaubert sale; it comes either from the same set as the previous one, or from n° 22 of the sale of April 28-30, 1931 in Antibes, file titled Histoire moderne, " notes générales contenant 16 chemises avec diverses études dont plusieurs datées de janvier 1837, mars 1837 et concernant l'Angleterre, la civilisation française au moyen âge ", etc.