It is with great sadness that we have learned of the sudden death of the historian Flavien Bertran de Balanda. A researcher at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and the Centre d’Histoire du XIXe Siècle (“Centre for Nineteenth-Century History”) at the Sorbonne, he was involved in the research project “Violence(s) et légitimité(s). Redéfinitions conceptuelles du politique dans la France postrévolutionnaire 1796-1871” (“Violence(s) et legitimacy(s): Conceptual redefinitions of politics in post-revolutionary France 1796-1871″). But he was best known for his work on Louis de Bonald, the subject of his dissertation (for which he had received a scholarship from the Fondation Napoléon in 2010) and the core of his academic commitments, and even his voluntary work, since he had co-founded the Société des Études Bonaldiennes (” Society of Bonaldian Studies “) in 2017. At the end of the summer of 2021, he published a remarkable Louis de Bonald, Philosophe et homme politique (1754-1840) [“Louis de Bonald, philosopher and politician“], for which he was awarded the Fondation Napoléon Jury Prize in December of that year. He was due to present this work as part of our “Cercle d’Études” talks programme on 1 February 2022.

Flavien Bertran de Balanda was an unusual and friendly man, a meticulous researcher, and in every respect distinguished. Those who knew him will miss him, as will the entire community of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century historians.

The Fondation Napoléon offers its sincere condolences to his wife Agatha and his family.

24 January 2022