Memoirs of Cambaceres acquired by the town of Montpellier (November 2020)

On 19 november 2020, the town of Montpellier acquired at auction an important collection of manuscripts of the Memoirs of Cambaceres.
Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambaceres (1753-1824) came from a family of magistrates in Montpellier. He was the Second consul of Bonaparte, and took part in the drafting of the Civil code.
This remarkable body of work, acquired for the sum of 46 800 euros, will enrich the collection at the central Émile Zola media library.
These Memoirs were written after the fall of the Empire, and remained unpublished until their publication in 1999 by Laurence Chatel de Brancion with the support of the Fondation Napoléon (Mémoires inédits de Cambacérès : éclaircissements publiés par Cambaceres sur les principaux événements de sa vie politique. Perrin, 1999, 2 volumes.).
They are divided into three “books”. The first explains the reasons for the work, summarises the author’s origins and recounts his political life from the beginning of the Revolution until he joined the governement in 1799.
The second follows his career until after the proclamation of the Empire in 1804, and the third, devoted to the Empire, remained unfinished and stops in 1813. Cambaceres probably dictated these memoirs to his former secretary of the commands, general secretary of the ministry for Justice, and his nephew by marriage, Jean-Olivier Lavollée.