Manuscript, one volume, 191 x 140mm. in binding, 33 pages writing, followed by 4 pages blank, then 11 pages writing. Page 11 (death statement of Barghou) continued onto both sides of a separate small piece of paper, which is tipped in.
 
Bound in manuscript waste from an antiphonal leaf, over card, left unglued at the fore-edge to create a secret compartment housing:
❦ A piece of writing paper, folded as a makeshift envelope, and addressed: “A Madame, Madame Barghou-Pagès Propriétaire à Mariol près Ris À Thiers Dépt du Puy de Dôme.” Enclosed within are:
❦ A cutting of a printed quatrain by Évariste de PARNY from POÉSIES ÉROTIQUES reading: Il disparaît l'âge si doux, L'âge brillant de la folie, Lorsque tout change autour de nous, Changeons, ô mon unique amie. [The sweet age is disappearing, The brilliant age of madness; When everything around us changes, Let us change, oh my only friend!]
❦ A pink slip titled “Lallemand Montigny”
❦ A slip dated “Du 22 Mai 1817” above a sacred heart, with “objets sur moi”, or “objects kept on my person to person”, with a pressed leaf.” Light browning, some excisions, stitching to bottom outer corner of front cover, fine red and blue initial to verso, pink silk wraparound ties (attached to lower cover).
 
Attractively-bound and very interesting notebook of a vine and food grower in the village of Maloire, in the Thiers region of central France.
 
The object, bound in a sheet of an antiphonal, shows the continuing commercial use of discarded examples of these church singing books, which are ideal for binding because they combine large sheet size with strong vellum material.
The contents include 10 pages of lists of agricultural tasks with caveats and costs. We learn for example that day labourers were paid 8 francs an hour, and there is a record of a sale of wine in Paris in 1806. In a schedule for the year, we learn that April is the month to buy onions for planting, and that truffles should be hunted around Easter.
 
Following this (p. [11]) in a new hand, is written: "Here, word for word, the last lines that my dear Barghou wrote, on the eve of his death, 29 August, and he delivered his last breath and his soul to God, the 30 August 1810": this is followed by a statement from Barghou, who we take to be the author of the first pages. Written here in a third hand is a record of receipt of a sum of money from Barghou's widow to settle his business.
 
The contents of the secret compartment, seemingly belong to Barghou’s widow, and appears to contain her remembrances of him.