Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie in Montaillou, when the historian opens the doors of the village

Published in 1975, “Montaillou, Occitan village from 1294 to 1324”, is a publishing success such as historians rarely encounter during their careers. A true immersion in the medieval peasant world but also a discussed scientific heritage, recalls historian Mickaël Wilmart.

Rarely has such a small mountain village owed its fame so much to the work of a historian. Montaillou, perched on the border of Ariège and Aude, has only around twenty inhabitants but will remain for a long time at the center of a monument of French historiography. Montaillou, Occitan village from 1294 to 1324, published by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie in 1975, is a publishing phenomenon such as historians rarely encounter during their careers. The book provided its author with a media presence for many years and gave each reader an immersive experience within the medieval peasant world.

However, nothing predisposed Le Roy Ladurie to look into the unique history of this 14th century village. Certainly, his thesis, defended in 1966, focused on the peasants of Languedoc but on another period, the 16th-17th centuries, which he made his specialty. It was while passing by chance in front of a bookstore window in 1968 that he came across the work of another researcher, Jean Duvernoy, who had just published Inquisition in Pamiers. The title intrigues him, he goes in to buy it and reads it. He then realized that its author had just published three volumes in Latin including the transcription of the interrogations carried out by Bishop Jacques Fourn