Document once part of the Collection Emile Brouwet / Musée Napoléon, Digne. The Musée Napoléon in Digne-les-Bains was opened on 1 January, 1932, in a corridor in the Hôtel l'Hermitage (today a student hall of residence). the museum was dismanteled in 1939. The major part of the Brouwet collection was sold at auction in 1934. The five volumes of the sale catalogue were entitled Napoléon et son temps: Catalogue de lettres autographes et documents historiques faisant partie de la Collection Emile Brouwet dont la Vente préparée par Jacques Arnna […] Hotel Drouot les 14 et 15 novembre 1934. A facsimile de of this letter appear in the volume entitled Autographes, première partie, planche II, with the commentary on pages 2-3., comprising a letter to Barras (text here below) and the postscript of the Princeton/Vilnius documents (facsimile published by Jean Savant, Napoléon, Paris: Henri Veyrier, 1974, p. 56)
Addressee: Barras; place: Milan; date: 23 Prairial, An IV (11 June, 1796)
A letter from Bonaparte to Barras (copyist's hand) followed by the postscript (autograph, hand of Napoleon) of the Princeton/Vilnius document. According to the catalogue of the sale of the Brouwet collection, Bonaparte wrote the following address on the envelope in his own hand: “Au citoyen Barras, membre du Directoire, exécutif, Paris” (To Citizen Barras, member of the Executive Directory, Paris).
Text of the body of the letter to Barras:
“Je te recommande, mon cher Barras, les Députés du Milanais, qui vont présenter leur hommage au Directoire, ce sont de bons patriotes qui voudraient établir la liberté dans Milan, avec d'autant plus de désintéressement qu'ils sont fort riches et jouissent d'une grande considération.” (note) “I recommend to you, my dear Barras, the deputies of the Milan region, who are coming to present their homage to the Directory. They are good patriots who wish to bring liberty to Milan, and they are all the more selfless in that they are exceedingly rich and highly respected.”
7: Document once part of the Collection Emile Brouwet / Musée Napoléon, Digne – Napoleon to Barras, with autograph postscript
