ROUSSEAU (Jean-Jacques). Autograph manuscript. 2 pp. on half-page columns. Evidence of Rousseau's preparatory work for Madame Dupin, who was meditating on a defense of the female condition. This is a synthesis in French of a passage from the CODE JUSTINIEN (paragraph XIV of title LVIII, De legitimis heredibus, i.e. "Of legitimate heirs", of book VI), drawn up, according to an autograph mention, reading the edition of the Corpus juris civilis published in 1663 jointly in Amsterdam by Joan Blaeu, Lodewijk and Daniel Elsevier, and in Leiden by Franz Hack. "It has been provided for the good of mankind by the loyalty of the 12 tables, which has established only one similar rule for legitimate husbands and wives, for their succession, and for their children, without any distinction of sex in the manner of succession, WHEREAS NATURE HAS MADE THE ONE AND THE OTHER TO PERPETUATE MUTUALLY, THAT EACH OF THEM NEEDS THE OTHER, AND THAT THE ONE SHOULD NOT BE RETRANCHED, UNLESS THE OTHER SHOULD LOSE. But posterity, with outrageous subtlety, has departed from this human indifference, as Julius Paulus clearly teaches in the book he put at the head of Tertullian's senatus-consult. To which we must relate this custom that daughters as well as sons succeed to their parents, and sisters to their brothers, the f[illes] who are in a more distant degree are no longer admitted to the successions open to males in the [m]e[m] case ; Where does it come from, for example, that the father's sister is not admitted like the brother of the [m]e[m]father to the succession of his nephew, but that the right of uncles is different from that of aunts, or that the brother to the exclusion of the sister is admitted to the succession of his uncle? We, therefore, out of respect for the old loyalty, have thought it necessary to oppose the new, and we order that all legitimate descendants, that is, by the male sex, whether male or female, be admitted in the same way to the rights of a legitimate succession according to the prerogative of degree, and that f[illes] will not be excluded for being of a more distant degree of consanguinity than sisters. For the rights of blood remaining whole through male transmission, why do we offend nature, and derogate from legitimate right?" MADAME DUPIN, ROUSSEAU'S LOVER AND FRIEND. Wife of farmer-general Claude Dupin, owner of the Château de Chenonceau, Louise-Marie-Madeleine de Fontaine (1706-1799) was the natural daughter of the great financier Samuel Bernard, and ran the most brilliant Parisian salon of her time, frequented by Cardinal de Bernis, Buffon, Fontenelle, the Abbé de Saint-Pierre and Voltaire. Rousseau was introduced to her in 1743, fell in love with her, declared his love for her and then apologized in a letter of apology. Madame Dupin did not hold this against him, and hired him as a secretary in 1745 to help her with her literary work. Rousseau stayed with her for a long time, leaving her service only in 1751, and always maintained a tender friendship. LES ANNEES PASSEES PAR ROUSSEAU AU SERVICE DE MADAME DUPIN FURENT "DECISIVES QUANT A LA FORMATION ET A LA PREMIERE FORMULATION DE S'IDEES" (Jean-Pierre Le Bouler, article on Madame Dupin in Dictionnaire de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Raymond Trousson and Frédéric Eigeldinger dir., p. 263).