CAGOTS - Francisque MICHEL (1809-1887, historian, philologis - Lot 432

CAGOTS - Francisque MICHEL (1809-1887, historian, philologist, worked on a "Histoire des races maudites en France et en Espagne" (History of Cursed Races in France and Spain), thereby combating discrimination against Jews and cagots, the so-called descendants of cursed races (Goths, Cathars), the bearers of all evils and excessively stigmatized) / Autograph letter signed, 3 p in-8, Bordeaux, July 29, 1844, to his "dear Baron": he announces his imminent departure for Spain and the various stages he will make there, where he will be able to join him at correspondents' and discusses Claude-Charles Pierquin de Gembloux (1798-1863, physician and scholar, described as a "literary madman", author of a multitude of studies such as an encyclopedia of madness in animals and a marmoset glossary, in which he gives a translation of their language), "I gladly agree with the judgment you pass on Sieur Pierquin de Gembloux, he's a donkey who kicks at the superiorities he meets on his way, and I'll probably share in his insults some day, because in my book on cursed races, I quoted his opinion on the etymology of cagot, asking the reader's forgiveness for having inserted such buffoonery in a serious work".